Chapter Seventeen by Dragonquirk
Ok, this wrap-up took much longer than I expected, and I appreciate your patience!! Once again, these are not our characters, but they ought to be since we love them much more than the people at Golden do.
GWP Finale
Chapter 17
Jones saw the three people he wanted to get most in the world standing together and decided that it was a perfect time. He snuck behind the bushes to over where the punch was, carrying the one extra package in his hands...
Trixie whirled around quickly; stifling a scream as Jones emerged from the bushes, leering evilly.
Everything seemed to switch into slow motion as Jim moved in front of her, his cup falling to the ground, spraying punch everywhere as his stepfather lurched towards them.
"Did you think you would get away with taking my money?" Jones yelled as he ripped open the package. "You owe me, James Frayne!"
The bomb hurled towards them, exploding in a blinding flash of light...
"Jim!"
Jim’s eyes flew open, aware of someone nudging his shoulder.
He blinked in the glare of the late morning sun.
"Hey, wake up!"
Jim rubbed a freckled hand across his forehead and looked over into the dark concerned eyes of Dan Mangan.
"You fell asleep back here in the hay after your shift. You all right? You look like you were having quite the nightmare…"
Jim sat up wearily and brushed the loose hay from his hair. "You aren’t kidding." He mumbled thickly. "What time is it?"
The dark-haired boy looked down at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Twelve-thirty. Uncle Bill just got back from lunch to relieve me from pony ride duty." He allowed a small smile to play across his face. "I can’t say I don’t blame you for taking a nap after your shift. I’ve had enough kids, ponies and overanxious mothers to last me for a month."
Jim slowly stood, still shaking off the dream. "I didn’t mean to fall asleep. The parade starts in half an hour."
Dan’s smile faded into a worried frown, and he nodded soberly. "I didn’t get much sleep either last night. And after this morning…"
Both young men looked at each other for a moment, then walked out of the makeshift corral area silently, heading towards the parade route, eyes scanning the crowd for any flashes of red.
Trixie walked nervously down the closed off main street of Sleepyside. The happy chatter of the throng of people that flooded the street before the parade floated all around her, but she walked on oblivious to it. Diana Lynch, who was walking in front of her, stopped short, causing Trixie to bump into her.
"Sorry, Di," she mumbled, eyes still scanning the crowd. "What were you saying?"
"I said that those grilled sausages smelled divine. And that funnelcake! Aren’t you hungry?"
"She’s probably still shaken up after this morning," said Adrianna, shivering. "I would have fainted if I had held a bomb on my lap."
Honey nodded. "That was a close call. But a lucky one. Thanks to that bomb, the K-9 dogs were able to sniff out the five other bombs in town and along the parade route."
"I was impressed that they removed them without hardly anyone knowing. I never would have noticed if you hadn’t pointed the officers by the judges stand this morning, Trixie." Di blinked her violet eyes in amazement.
Trixie nodded, but gave no reply as she continued to look around warily.
Honey sighed. "Anyway, the Sergeant found all the bombs. It looks like Stubby’s plan failed. Can’t we just enjoy the rest of the day?"
"I, for one, heartily concur with Dr. Watson’s mellifluous statement." Mart stepped out of the crowd to join them, Brian at his heels.
"Mart’s right," he added, patting his little sister on the shoulder. "You need to relax, Trixie. Game’s over. We won."
"And now is the time to revel and repast in the afternoon and evening’s merriment."
Trixie frowned up at him. "I would hardly say this is a good time to be celebrating. Sure, Molinson found a bunch of bombs, but the men responsible for them are still on the loose."
"And that is the Sergeant's problem, not yours," said Brian sternly. "Have you had lunch yet?"
Honey answered for all of them. "No, but we were just saying how wonderful everything smells!"
"And from the powdered sugar all over Mart’s shirt, I guess the funnelcakes were worth the price?" teased Di.
Mart grinned and wiped at his collar. "Indubitably so, Miss Lynch. Would you ladies care to indulge?" He held an arm out and winked at them. Giggling, Adrianna and Di walked with him towards the long line in front of the stand.
Brian watched them go, then turned to Honey and his sister. "Would you two care for something a bit more nutritious?"
Honey giggled. "I don’t know about that, but those sausages are making my mouth water. How ‘bout it, Trixie?"
"I guess so," she answered ambiguously, looking over at the alley near them.
Honey and Brian exchanged a look, then Brian shrugged. "Ok, sausages it is. I’ll be back soon--save me a seat for the parade." He gestured to the rapidly filling sidewalks as he moved towards the distant booth.
Honey watched him go, then turned to Trixie.
Or where Trixie just was standing. Her best friend was nowhere to be seen.
Nervously, Honey started scanning the crowd nearby for the petite blonde, sighing with relief when she spotted her walking towards the side street that led towards the park.
Thank goodness for our red jackets! She thought as she hurried to catch up with her.
"Trixie, what--"
Honey was answered with an abrupt waving of Trixie’s hand. Keeping quiet, they peered around the corner of the old post office. Honey gazed around the park, trying to ascertain what her friend was staring at.
A family of five was eating lunch by one of the benches, brightly colored helium balloons waving in the slight breeze. Several bandfront girls were hurrying to get to the other side of the park where the big parade was forming. A scruffy looking man was sitting next to a well-dressed bespeckled man on one of the far benches.
As Honey watched, the bookish man tucked his paper under his arm and walked away. She turned to Trixie to ask what the big deal was when she spotted the small parcel sitting next to the bum.
Trixie turned to Honey, her blue eyes indignant, but said nothing as an elderly gentleman stopped to listen to the con man’s story.
"Honey!" she hissed. "Do you have your cell?" She took the phone as Honey stared at the game taking place in front of them. "Di? Listen. There’s a man in a blue suit, tweed cap with a yellow scarf coming your way with a brown package. He’s just been played in that coin scam. I need you and Mart to stop him and take him to the police." She clicked off the phone and tossed it to Honey, taking off down the side street.
"Trixie! Wait!" Honey juggled the phone as she followed, finally managing to stuff it back into her purse.
Trixie kept her pace quick, but managed to keep a small distance from the con man. He seemed to be heading towards the outer edge of town, to the bus station, but instead ducked down an alley, heading towards the midway where the carnival games and rides were in full swing. They heard the sound of the Sleepyside High marching band cadence, and knew that the parade was slowly moving towards Main Street. Trixie pulled Honey off to the side as she saw the small man with the glasses emerge from the shadows of a carny trailer to meet the bum.
Ducking behind a stack of crates, Trixie edged closer.
"…for it, hook, line and sinker. This cash will get us out of this hick area until we can divide up the loot from the bank job." The bum was smiling, waving a wad of bills at the other fellow.
"Quit gloating, and get going to the bank. Stubby should be nearly done with the electric work by now, and you know what a stickler Larry is for timing."
"Pffah. I know the drill. The old man made us go over it how many times. Like we were morons or something."
The other crook didn’t reply, merely stuffed the spectacles into his pocket. "You got the decoy?"
The bum pulled a small device from his pocket. "Yeah, yeah. I don’t get why we have to light a smoke bomb, anyway. There’s gonna be enough commotion when Stubby gets done with the power station." He scowled and handed it to his partner.
The other man shrugged. "I dunno. Larry has the master plan. I said we should have knocked off that blonde kid detective a while ago, but Larry said she played right into his hands, going to the police with that bomb."
"I think Larry’s gone a little loopy, myself. But hey, since he’s gonna make me a rich man, what’s the difference?"
"You’re not gonna get rich by standing here flappin’ your jaws."
"Yeah…yeah…" the scraggly man faded off into the shadows. His partner watched him go, a disgusted look crossing his face for a moment, then walked slowly in the opposite direction.
"Honey! We can’t waste any time--get to Main Street and phone Sgt. Molinson! He’s got to stop them!"
Honey nodded, her hazel eyes wide as she fumbled for her phone. "All this time they’ve been plotting a bank robbery?"
Trixie nodded as she leapt to her feet and peeked around the corner at the slowly retreating man. "What did they mean about Stubby…is he cutting the electric wires?…No... " she muttered to herself, keeping one eye on the crook.
"He said power station. Does the bank have a separate generator or something?"
Trixie frowned, then slapped her forehead. "Sleepyside does. Honey, what would happen if a bomb were placed at the town’s power supply?" she started down the narrow path behind the carnival trailers.
"Trixie!" Honey whispered as loudly as she could.
Her friend merely gestured her on, and turned around a corner, following the con man.
Honey wasted no time. Grabbing her phone, she sprinted the short distance to the parade route, weaving her way through the people lining up to watch as the flash of police lights signaled the beginning of the parade.
Frantically, she dialed a familiar number and opened her mouth to speak just as the first blast of music from the trumpet section sounded as the band marched past.
Honey grit her teeth and started shouting in the sergeant’s ear as Brian, Dan, and her brother ran up to her.
The roar of the tilt-a-whirl ride as it started made Trixie jump as she emerged from the shadows of the trailers that stood behind the rides on the midway.
Most of the crowd was lining the main street, but a few stragglers stayed behind, playing the prizes games that faced the rides. Trixie had no trouble locating the con man’s back as he walked away from the mid town area.
Dodging a cotton candy vendor, and a group of carnys having lunch by the giant slide, she held her breath as she saw him slip into the unattended funhouse.
Pausing near the entrance, she took a deep breath, the events of the past week spinning in her head.
The bombs today were just a decoy from what the gang was planning, but they could have gone off. The heartless game of the coin scam, played for the last time on the Sleepyside streets. The threats on her life. The threat to her town.
A smoke bomb set off in the funhouse would bring all the attention to this end of town, far away from the Sleepyside bank, residing on the other end. And to throw in a power failure on top of that…
She couldn’t let him light that bomb.
Taking another deep breath, she entered the funhouse. Quickly up a set of moving stairs, past a bunch of jiggling barrels. A pair of grinning faces appeared on either side of the doorway to the maze, and Trixie started a bit as they blew a blast of dry ice fog from their mouths as she passed.
Temporarily disoriented, she stumbled through the door into the dark maze, walls mounted with luminous masks, all the faces set into different leering grins.
Trixie shivered a bit. Well, it could be worse, she thought. He could have gone into the haunted house.
She stopped, listening for any sounds of movement. A long minute passed, then she finally heard the hollow footsteps clanging on the metal floor on the other side of the maze.
Stealthily, she tiptoed through the maze, carefully glancing around corners as she made her way through. Once, she bumped into the cold wall, and held her breath as the footsteps stopped. Trixie could feel her heart beating in her throat. After an eternity, the footsteps continued.
Trixie let her breath slowly out, trying to ignore the beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
Finally, the maze gave one last twist, and Trixie found herself in the hall of mirrors, staring into the eyes of the man bending over the smoke bomb.
"You," he said, with a calmness that sent a chill up Trixie’s spine.
Trixie took a step towards him, ignoring the shaking in her legs. She tossed her head, trying to appear as calm as the con man in front of her. "You won’t get away with it," she said. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see half a dozen versions of herself moving in the dim room.
The small man leaned back on his heels and chuckled softly. "I told him you were too smart for your own good."
Trixie put her hands on her hips. "Yeah, I’ve heard that one before. Can’t you come up with a better cliché?"
He laughed again, a sound that sent another shiver down her spine. Dropping the bomb to the floor, he slowly stood to face her, causing several of his reflections to waver behind him, distorting him. The effect was completely unnerving.
Gulping, Trixie took a small step counter clockwise, seeing the confusion in his eyes as the mirrors amplified the movement.
"How about ‘we should have slit your throat when we had the chance’?" he spoke softly, circling opposite her. "But no, I’m not a wanted man. What would I know? Instead, you get a package."
She kept moving opposite him, maintaining eye contact. Her throat was dry, but a plan was forming in the back of her head.
"One that didn’t go off," she croaked. "No matter to you, the police could use it to find all the ones you hid down town. But blowing up downtown wasn’t the real plan, was it?" Trixie slowly took another step, the eight Trixies behind her wavering in and out at strange angles. "Your boss planned to rob the bank all along."
He nodded, nearing the entrance to the maze. "That’s right. Such a clever girl…"
His sentence was left unfinished as Trixie bent down and grabbed the bomb, running for the exit as fast as she could. Racing across a series of moving bridges, she dove through a giant moving barrel near the exit of the funhouse, the cursing of the con man ringing in her ears.
Trixie ran down the nearly deserted midway towards the center of town. The smoke bomb clutched tightly in her hand, she didn’t look back as she could hear the con man gaining on her with every stride.
Desperately, she looked to either side for an escape route. Leaping over a small barrier, she ran towards the merry go round, which had just started up. Ignoring the shouts of the operator, she gave one frantic grab at a pole, and jumped on.
Carefully, she wove her way through the brightly painted horses that were bobbing up and down. A faint thump and more shouting let her know that the con man had joined her on the ride. The roar of the music swelled and faded as they passed the old player piano set into the middle of the carousel.
Trixie took a few steps to the right, and ducked down behind a large black stallion, its fierce head rising and falling faster as the ride reached its top speed.
A sixth sense warned her to look up, and she moved quickly to avoid the small man’s fist as he swung at her. A howl of pain went up from him as he connected with the solid wood of the moving horse. Enraged, he came after her with energy anew. Frightened, Trixie moved to the outer part of the ride.
"Trixie!"
She caught the flash of red and the blur of the blue police uniforms from the corner of one eye. Relieved, she grabbed onto the reins of a white stallion, just as the man lunged for her again. Shrinking back, she grabbed his shirt and pulled hard, using his forward motion to launch him off the platform.
Trixie heard the crook land with a curse and a thud, and craned her neck to see the men in blue quickly surround him. She exhaled and leaned against the nearest pole, clutching the smoke bomb tightly in her hand.
Suddenly, the merry go round began to lose power. Trixie looked over at the other rides. Everything was coming to a grinding halt.
Trixie stepped shakily off the now powerless ride to be enveloped into a bear hug by Jim and Dan.
"The power! He’s knocked out the power!" she yelled. One of the officers relieved her of the smoke bomb, as a crowd of people surrounded them.
Handcuffed, subdued, and nursing a lump on his forehead, the con man was quietly being led away by two of the officers. Excited voices swirled all around Trixie, and she was barely aware of Jim and Dan escorting her through the crowd.
Honey and Brian were waiting outside of the Sleepyside police station.
"Trixie! You’re alright!" Honey threw her arms around her best friend.
"Oh, Honey, we didn’t get there in time! They’ve bombed the power station!"
Honey’s reply was cut short by Officer Murphy hurrying down the stairs. "We need to get a statement from you, Miss Belden." He wore a worried frown as he escorted the group inside the darkened station.
He led them into a small room where Mart, Di, and Adrianna were waiting. Quietly, the group listened as Trixie recounted the events of the last twenty-four hours into a small hand held tape recorder. Just as she finished her deposition, the lights flickered on, and the sounds of the station roaring back to life filled their ears.
Trixie blinked at the sudden invasion of light. " I don’t understand! How…?"
The young police officer let a smile cross his face as he heard a faint commotion in the back of the station. "I believe I can answer that in a few minutes. Everyone wait here, please." He strode rapidly from the room.
Brian was the first to speak. "Trixie, after all that happened to you this week. How could you…"
"It was idiosyncratic of her impetuous imbecilic methodology."
Adrianna shivered. "It was incredibly brave of you to chase that man."
Trixie shook her head before Jim or Dan could speak. "I wasn’t brave at all. And I sure was glad to see the police!" She glanced over at Honey, who started to speak, but instead just pointed at the open doorway. The sight of Stubby Simmons and Larry Jones and their gang being led downstairs in handcuffs filled their eyes, and a cheer went up around the room.
7: 09 PM
Saturday night"No, Trixie, don’t scrub at it! You have to blot it out."
Margery Trask smiled at the sight of Honey and Trixie and a glass of seltzer water in the corner of the crowded gymnasium.
"Can I assist you girls at all?"
Trixie looked up, her face red with effort and embarrassment. "I spilled some punch on my skirt accidentally."
"I think we’ve gotten most of it out. There, see, it hardly shows." Honey inspected the folds of the pale blue dress.
Trixie sighed at the wet spot near the hem of the hated garment. "Thanks, Honey."
Miss Trask sat down next to them, her blue eyes twinkling as Trixie fanned her dress with a paper plate. "Well, I’m glad you two could enjoy the dance this evening." she remarked.
"Thanks to these two young ladies, everyone in Sleepyside can enjoy the dance this evening." Mayor Hill’s voice rang out from behind them. He bent to shake Trixie and Honey’s hands. "The Sargent informed me you are responsible for the capture of those men this afternoon."
Honey’s hazel eyes were wide. "Oh, sir, but we…"
"Now, now, Miss Wheeler, your phone call allowed the Seargent and his men to catch Larry red handed at the bank."
"And Simmons at the powerplant." Molinson added. "And Greene, the man responsible for the cons that have been played recently. I must say that I don’t approve of Miss Belden’s assistance there." He waved a beefy finger at her. "How many times must we go through this? Chasing after criminals is a dangerous business reserved for the police, not teenage girls."
Trixie stared down at her feet, trying not to show her anger. How many times in one day do I have to hear this speech?
The mayor’s cheery tone interrupted her thoughts. "Now, Wendell, I’m sure you went over this down at your stationhouse. Of course we don’t recommend that sort of thing for young ladies, but are grateful for their assistance."
Trixie glanced up at the Sargent. "That was pretty clever of you, sir, blacking out the town to make Larry and the gang think that everything was going ahead on schedule."
Sgt. Molinson’s eyebrows hit the top of his forehead. "Praise from you, Miss Belden? I had better check to see if the sky is falling." He strode off as the Mayor shook their hands again.
"Sleepyside owes you a debt, one that I will see repaid." He smiled at both of them, then bowed in front of Miss Trask. "May I have this dance?"
"Certainly, Mr. Hill."
Honey smiled as she watched them walk out onto the floor, sidestepping Tammy Westcott, who had quietly joined them.
"My grandmother and I also owe you a debt," she said, smiling. "We ran into Di earlier, and she told us how Mr. Bilkins was scammed this afternoon. After thinking it over, Grandma decided to tell the police, and she is going to get all her money back."
"What about your dad?" Trixie asked.
Tammy smiled again. "The Sun has enough news to fill it cover to cover without adding a sentence about Grandma. At least that’s how Officer Murphy put it."
Honey and Trixie grinned in relief. "That’s great, Tammy!" Honey said, as Brian and Jim and Dan joined them.
"You aren’t kidding, Tammy," exclaimed Dan. "You’re looking at the front page story right there." He made a frame with his hands and peered at them through it.
"It wouldn’t be the first time for these two," added Brian dryly. "Care to dance with me before tomorrow’s headlines make you famous, Miss Wheeler?"
Honey laughed and followed him into the crowd.
Jim smiled as he watched them go, then turned to Dan. "Honey might become famous, but Trixie…"
Dan grinned back at him. "Infamous!" they chorused.
Trixie stuck her tongue out at them, then laughed as the happy feeling that she got at the end of a case washed over her. Infamous, indeed! I wonder kind of mystery Honey and I will face next?
The End
Final chapter written by Dragonquirk.