Author’s notes: Thanks Anna and Aurie. Thanks Leslie, they would never get around to solving the mystery without you. Thanks everyone for your patience. You won’t have to wait as long for the next part, I promise! Standard disclaimers apply—not my characters, not making money, etc.
CHAPTER 11
ON THE CASE
The voices from the men’s room abruptly stopped. Part of Trixie wanted to stay and see who the kidnappers were, but she thought better of it when she noticed Diana’s ashen face. Trixie ran to the nearest building, a white shed across the alley, and Di joined her two seconds later.
"Shhh," Trixie whispered to her friend. As their eyes were adjusting to the dim interior of the shed, Trixie tried to listen for footsteps in the gravel. All she could hear was the hum of a small motor. She saw a row of upside-down glass pitchers on top of what Trixie decided was a modern ice machine. Just to be sure, she opened it and stuck her hand inside, bringing back a cold handful of ice to share with Di.
Just when they could not stand to be in the stuffy box any longer, a gray-haired gentleman with an empty pitcher and surprised expression opened the door. The girls burst out of the shed and Trixie hastily mumbled something to him about Diana having needed some ice. They had started down the alley when Trixie was struck by a sudden thought.
"Oh!" she said, and ran back to the ice shed. "Did you happen to see anyone leaving the men’s room?"
"I didn’t notice anything," the man replied.
A dejected Trixie met up with Di, who, if it’s possible, felt worse than her friend did.
"I am so sorry, Trixie!" Diana was on the verge of tears. "I should have noticed the way you were standing and kept my mouth shut!"
"It was an honest mistake, Di. Don’t feel bad!" They linked arms and continued down the alley. Stopping at the picnic tables, Trixie asked, "Where’s Honey?"
"She went looking for you in this direction. I’m sure she’ll find us if we sit here."
Honey joined them a few minutes later. "What happened? Di, you look upset, and Trixie, you look ready to burst!"
"The marshal’s kidnappers were here, but I didn’t get a look at them."
"I blew it!" wailed Di. Honey sat down and put her arm around Diana.
Trixie patted Di’s arm. "These things happen." If she didn’t already feel so bad, Trixie would have been upset with her. Trixie could have seen the kidnappers leave the restroom and given the police a description. The men could have said something about what Gene had stumbled upon before getting kidnapped. Right now she had very little to go on—only the confirmation that he was taken and is alive. She leaned her head towards Honey and Di and told them what she overheard.
"Trinomial feminine skulls adjacent eachother," they heard Mart say above the crunch of the gravel, "is a baleful indication that the Schoolgirl Shamuses are on the case."
Trixie’s temper flared quickly, but Di was faster. "You’re finally done? Oh, you poor thing! Your face is the same color as the polka dots on your new hat. You’d better hurry and be first in line for the shower."
"You can come back when you smell better," Trixie added. She only liked it when Jim called her a shamus. The other guys were not far behind Mart. Di had no trouble convincing them to wait their turn for the shower inside the air-conditioned Beye house.
Once the door closed, Di sat back down. Honey was giving Trixie a knowing look.
In exasperation, Honey asked, "You’re not going to tell them yet, are you? Trixie, this morning you said we would let them know if we found anything!"
"That was different. It was before Ned gave his approval of the investigation. I don’t want him changing his mind now. What do we really know anyway? The marshal was kidnapped. There are two men—a big one and a little one. The little one has an ego and voicemail. The big one has Gene. We can’t do anything but keep investigating at this point."
"So we didn’t find out a lot, Trixie, but that’s not what has me worried," said Honey. "It’s what the kidnappers found out."
Trixie swallowed hard. "They know who was eavesdropping, but they don’t know who I am. For all they know, Trixie Belden was just a paying visitor. Someone passing through who could not possibly mess up their plans, whatever they are." She didn’t voice her suspicion that one or both of the men frequented the museum, and might know who she is. Otherwise, Trixie wondered, why would they be meeting here?
* * *
By the time the others had showered, the girls had decided on a small semblance of a plan. Di was to talk to Ned alone and see if he would open up to her about his secret, or at least talk about the young ladies of Railroadtown. Honey and Trixie wanted to find out what Gene Watson’s latest research project was about. Their best bet, Trixie felt, was at the public library. She would look up the address and consult the map of Grand Island in Ned’s aunt’s phone book. Trixie remembered her promise to Ned about having one of the boys with them if they investigated off-grounds. Dan would give them the least amount of grief. He would probably be a help.
They entered the house and saw every piece of living room furniture draped with a tired young man. Trixie knelt next to Dan. "Will you go to the library with Honey and me?" she quietly asked. "We have some research to do."
"I’ll go—just to find out what you girls have been up to all day."
Jim came out of the bathroom with glistening hair. "I guess it’s time for us to decide what to do this evening. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m bushed. I vote we just lay around camp and not do anything that requires much energy." No one objected to his plan.
Trixie suddenly realized that Jim was probably maneuvering it so that they could spend a few minutes off by themselves to finish their talk. She felt really guilty when she announced, "Dan is taking Honey and me to the library to do some research. We’ll go after supper. I’m sure it won’t take more than an hour."
* * *
"Can I drive?"
"No, Trixie," Dan laughed, "you cannot drive. You’ve had your license for two months. Besides, I know your sense of direction."
"Do you know where the library is?"
"As a matter of fact, I asked Sonya. She also said that the Assistant Curator of the museum works at the library. We’re supposed to ask for Leslie."
"I suggest we get going," Honey said, sliding into the middle of the front seat.
After they arrived at the Edith Abbott Memorial Library, Honey said, "Where should we start? Should we find Leslie?"
"That works for me."
"It might help if I knew what we are looking for," Dan said.
Honey said, "Dani told us that Gene, Marshal Watson, wrote stories for the local paper about old crimes. We though that, if we could find out what he was working on lately, we might find the motive for his kidnapping."
They approached the front desk. "Hi, we’re looking for Leslie." Honey smiled sweetly.
A woman with brown and gray hair and a friendly smile said, "I’m Leslie. Can I help you with something?"
"I’m Trixie Belden, these are my friends Honey Wheeler and Dan Mangan. We’ve been volunteering at the museum this week. Sonya Beye told us you work there, too."
"That’s right. Oh, I remember seeing you at the dance! I was there with my niece, Jessica."
"Do you know that Gene Watson is missing?"
"No, I hadn’t heard that. What do you mean, he’s missing?"
"He disappeared Monday after work. Have you seen him lately?" Trixie asked.
"Not since I was out mousing Friday."
"Mousing?" asked Honey.
"I check all the mouse traps once a week. I saw Gene holding down a bench in front of the Hardware store, working hard at being the handsome Marshal. Why are you asking?"
"We are trying to find out what happened to him. Everyone is worried. We just want to help out," said Honey.
"Do you happen to know if Gene has been doing research for a story?" questioned Trixie.
Leslie thought for a moment. "Yah, he was in last week. He mentioned something about a bank robbery in the 1930s, with a good police car chase. The robbery was in York, but the chase ended up near here, with a lot of gunfire. I think he gets much of his information from police files. I was helping him find pictures of the police officers involved. I don’t know if this helps you any. I hope you find him, and he’s all right. Let me know if I can help you with anything else."
"Thanks Leslie."
CHAPTER 12
YOUNG GIRL
When they returned to the campsite, Brian, Jim, Mart and Di were playing cards. Ned was nowhere to be seen. Trixie looked inquiringly at Di, who shrugged. To Trixie, that meant Di found something out about Ned, but she wasn’t sure just what that thing means. They would have to debrief her later.
Honey and Dan laughingly said that they would play the losers. Jim and Brian won, so Jim seized the opportunity to take a walk. Trixie knew he expected her to join him. She had a strong suspicion this wasn’t a kissing expedition.
Trixie reached out for Jim’s hand. "You’ve been wanting to talk with me."
"You remember when I gave you this bracelet?" he asked, pointing at her wrist, where a silver bracelet engraved with Jim’s name rested.
"Of course. We were on the plane coming home from Iowa, where we first met Ned."
Jim looked a bit annoyed when she mentioned Ned. "I told you it meant that you are my special girl. But our relationship has never progressed beyond that. Not really. I mean, here we are, still holding hands. I’m not sure exactly why. Maybe it was because every time I turned around, you were in the middle of some mysterious mess…." She cringed when he said that, and Jim paused to give her a small smile and hand squeeze. "Or maybe it’s the age difference."
Trixie wanted to protest the second suggestion but thought better if it. Every time she saw Jim talking to someone older, prettier and more self-assured, Trixie thought that he must wish he could be with someone like that. Oh, there were plenty of times she knew he liked having a tomboy around, and he admired her fearlessness—when he wasn’t frightened by it. Thought she hated to think that their problem was something unfixable like that, she preferred it to the first suggestion. It was just as unfixable. She would never give up her lifelong ambition for some man. "But it’s not some man," her heart cried, "it’s Jim!"
"I didn’t want your high school years to be lonely, while I’m away at college. I wanted you to still go out and have fun."
"I managed to have some fun while you were away." Jim took her other hand and they looked at eachother intently for a moment. "He’s not going to kiss me. What is it?" she thought to herself. His eyes looked away from her and his head dropped. "This is going to be bad."
"I’m trying to say that we can’t go on this way anymore, it’s not working. It’s like we’re in some sort of limbo—stuck at 17 and 14 forever! I can’t handle it. That’s not where I want to be."
Her mind was spinning. She needed to think. This was a conversation she knew was coming, but wasn’t ready for. "I—I can’t talk about this now, Jim. Soon." She was searching, grasping for an excuse. "I’m just so worried about the Marshal—and Ned. That’s all I can think about." She stumbled away, her vision blurring.
* * *
Honey and Di noticed right away that Trixie was upset. They asked her what was wrong while they were getting ready for bed. When she stated, "Jim wants to break up with me," they were properly horrified. Honey offered to go knock some sense into her brother, but Trixie assured her that it was something that needed to be settled privately.
Having supportive friends helped, but Trixie still had a hard time falling asleep. And then there was the dream.
She and Jim were in the station wagon; he had finally let her drive. He was complimenting her driving skills. She could even drive and look at him at the same time. Then an announcement came over the radio about someone robbing a bank, heading toward Grand Island. "That’s the car!" Trixie shrieked, as she took off after it.
After managing to stay right behind the other car for several minutes, Jim announced, "Pull over, here’s my stop." Trixie did as he asked and a long driveway loomed ahead. A large sign read, "Frayne School for Underprivileged Boys." She was anxious to follow the disappearing taillights when Jim got out of the car, but he leaned down to look back at her through the passenger window. His lips moved but, like in the other dream, she couldn’t hear him. The noise from the engine was too loud. Trixie wouldn’t shut off the engine to hear.
She awoke then, from the sound of the trailer next to them pulling out. It’s not so much that she couldn’t hear Jim, she mused, but that she wouldn’t. "I won’t," she said stubbornly, "Not today!"
While getting dressed, Trixie asked Diana what she learned from Ned.
"Not a whole lot," Di said. "He wasn’t very talkative last night. It didn’t help that Mart decided it was a good opportunity for us to spend some quality time together. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings by saying I had something more important to do. Besides," she added with a grin, "I DO like being alone with him. Oh! Sorry, Trix. That wasn’t very sensitive of me."
"You don’t have to treat me with kid gloves. You should be able to spend time with your boyfriend and have fun, mystery or no mystery. I tend to get single minded on a case, and I think it has cost me. I need to focus on something other than myself right now. Did Ned tell you anything?"
"Well, I thought I would broach the subject of dating by talking about Mart and me. Then I asked him about girls back home, and if he ever got around to dating Barbara Hubbell."
"Oh, did he?" Honey asked.
"No, they’re just good friends. But she did make him all the clothes he wears in Railroadtown—his work clothes and that nice suit he wore at the dance."
"Those are nice," Honey said, "I wish I had enough time to make an outfit for Railroadtown. I know—I’ll make us some petticoats!"
"What about Ned and the mystery girl? Please tell me you didn’t talk about Barb all night!" Trixie was tugging at handfuls of her curls.
"I asked him if he had met anyone special here. He said that he thought he did, but now he knows he was wrong. I asked him how he knew. He said, ‘I thought she cared about me, but she wouldn’t even trust me. I was stupid for getting involved with someone younger.’ That’s a big clue isn’t it?"
"Ouch!" thought Trixie. Aloud, she said, "Very good clue! We already know Betsy is older. So is Tonya. We’ll have to find out about the rest."
Everyone had decided last night that they would go to the museum that morning and then spend the afternoon at the Water Park. That evening they would picnic with the Beyes.
Mart went to work with Miss Judi in the gardens. He wanted to learn about the heritage gardening and seed savers programs. Brian and Ned joined him. Trixie sent Diana to talk to Lauren at the school and Alexis at the Fonda House. Laura was in the Mercantile, which was where Dan spent his morning. Honey was under strict orders to not leave Trixie alone with Jim so he could finish breaking up with her. They went to the Depot to help Miss Dani and Miss Debbie paint signs.
Dani sighed loudly. "I counted. We need 17 signs. Plus we need to make the mini-telephone poles for the telephone exchange, the shoe-hat for the shoe shop, the colander hat for the Merc, decorate the penny farthing bicycle for the blacksmith and finish Henry. Am I forgetting anything? Sewing the tin articles to the tinsmith’s vest! Oh, and the tissue-paper barber pole! I told you we were full of ideas."
"Is someone really going to wear a colander on their head? Can I volunteer Mart for that one?"
"Haha! I think Laura has that honor—and she’ll look lovely in it!"
They had made a slight dent in the work before discovering the morning gone. Miss Dani was painting "Temperance" and singing, in the off-key voice from the night of the ball:
"Away, away with rum, by gum, with rum, by gum, with rum, by gum.
Away, away with rum, by gum—the song of the temperance union.
We never eat fruitcake because it has rum,
And one little bite turns a man to a bum.
Now, can you imagine a sorrier sight—than a man who eats fruitcake until he gets
tight?"
Everyone was laughing when she finished, grinning. She said to Debbie, "Have you checked your mailbox lately? I sent you a letter last week."
"No. I’ll go do that now," Debbie replied, then walked across the street to the post office.
"We have boxes in the post office," Dani said to her three helpers. "We send each other mail, or anyone can. There is a list of people inside, plus paper, pencils and envelopes. Then you put it in the slot that says ‘Local Mail’"
Debbie returned and said, "You have something in your box, too."
"Wonder what that could be! It’s probably from one of the girls, they’re the only ones who write me."
This drew Trixie’s interest, as anything that might involve the mystery girl would. Dani came back, making a big show of waving her letter around. "I’ve got mail, I’ve got mail." She opened it and started reading aloud. "Dear Dani, My dearest friend. (AWWWW) I am writing you to tell you a secret of mine. Oh, I guess it’s private."
As Miss Dani read on silently, Trixie carefully watched her face. Dani smiled, grinned, looked puzzled and then concerned. "I need to go answer this letter," the lady said before disappearing into the post office again.
Trixie turned to Honey and said, "That letter is from the mystery girl."
CHAPTER 13
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
"Mystery Girl? You two are the only mystery girls I know." Jim was standing behind them with blue paint on his chin.
Trixie smiled at him. She wanted to be the only mystery girl in his life. "You’d better go get cleaned up. It’s time to go."
The Bobwhites returned from the Water Park, Island Oasis, at around 4:30. They had enjoyed themselves, but they didn’t like the noise and crowd. Ned was getting the grill ready, the boys were playing in the yard with the Beye children and the girls were having a quiet discussion on the porch before going inside to help Ned’s aunt."Alexis told me how old the girls are. Laura doesn’t look it, because of her size, but she is entering college this year." Laura looked similar to Trixie in size and coloring. Her curly blonde hair was a shade darker and an inch longer. Laura was also quieter and more polite. Sort of like Diana in Trixie’s body. "So Lauren, Missy and Jenny McIntosh are seniors this year, and our most likely suspects."
"Did you learn anything from Lauren?" Trixie asked.
"She was talking to other people when I went to see her. Oh, but Alexis invited us all out to her lake to swim Friday night. She’ll have some of the suspects over, too!"
"Sounds great!" Trixie said. Then she told her about Dani’s letter.
"I guess I’m not sure how that is going to help us," said Di.
"You aren’t going to try and get the letter, are you?" Honey asked.
"Honey Wheeler! I thought you knew me better than that! I would never steal someone’s mail—unless I was pretty sure they had done something really bad. I guess we should just watch Dani to see if she has a talk with HER and watch the three girls to see who gets mail."
Dan approached the porch and said, "Hi, I would like to talk to you, Trixie." Di and Honey went inside. "Let’s go for a walk."
As they left the fenced yard and walked over toward the goats, Trixie felt Jim’s eyes on her back. "What did you want to talk about?" she mumbled.
"What is going on, Trixie?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you going to tell the guys about your mystery, or is this just for the girls? I am glad I at least got to go to the library with you. I think I am. In the past, when you were working on a case, we would discuss it as a club."
"And at most of those meetings, I was told that it was none of my business, I was imagining things or it was too dangerous. I’m tired of being criticized."
"That’s funny, ‘cause I seem to remember meetings where your suspicions were validated and plans were made to solve the case. And usually when we said it was dangerous, we were right and you knew it. You just don’t care that you put yourself at risk, and you drag Honey into it, too!"
"Of course I care, and I would never intentionally risk Honey’s life for anything! But sometimes, a perfectly safe plan is quickly rewritten due to circumstances changing." They had reached the intersection of Depot and College streets, and the entrance to the arboretum. They walked up the path and came across a bench in the shade.
"At least, when we knew what was going on with you, we had a place to start looking when you disappeared."
Trixie exhaled loudly and sank onto the bench. "What is going on with me," she repeated. "I wish I knew!"
"You’ve been a little out of sorts lately, and Jim is moody."
"I’m surprised you’ve noticed anyone but Laura Sweley."
"Ah, Laura! She’s a NICE girl. Boy, can she draw! And she’s really good at tennis. She’s good at everything. And she’s smart, too. She a good listener; I told her about my parents dying and all the trouble I was in before moving to Sleepyside. And when she smiles—you don’t want to hear me talk about Laura now, do you?"
"I am happy for you, and wouldn’t mind listening, but…"
"But you’re miserable, and it’s my turn to listen."
"You’ve really been there for me. I mean, you always have, but more so this year with Jim gone."
"He’s a big part of your life."
Trixie sighed again. "You let go."
"I let go?" Dan was puzzled.
"No, that was what Jim said in my dream. I had a dream Sunday night. We were back at the dance, doing the Grand March. Suddenly I was far away and Jim was saying something to me but I couldn’t remember what."
"And now you do."
"You let go."
"What does it mean?"
"I let go of his hand, during the dance, when we were all holding hands and circling into a spiral. I thought my hand slipped, I felt it slipping! But I must have let go."
"At the dance or in the dream?"
"In the dream…at the dance…I don’t know. But it made me feel so tired. I am tired of the effort it is taking to hold on to Jim Frayne—when I feel him pulling away from me. He’s slipping away now—whether I let go or not."
"What are you talking about?"
"Jim said our relationship isn’t working. Maybe he’s right."
"When did he say that?"
"Last night."
"You had the dream Sunday."
"I know."
"So you know."
"I know I knew that it was coming."
"What I want to know is, how do you know that Jim is going to let you let him go?"
"I think he will be relieved. He’ll be free."
Dan shook his head. "You two make things so complicated. You can talk honestly to each other about what you believe in, your political views, what you want to do with your lives, but not about what is going on between you, what has always gone on between you. You go around thinking you are not pretty enough or old enough for him, he goes around thinking that if he cares too much about you, you’ll die like his parents. I don’t think he’ll be relieved to be free. I think he’ll always feel bad that he held back…he held back and you let go."
"I let go," Trixie repeated with a faraway voice.
"I’ll leave you alone for a little bit. Don’t stay away too long, you’ll miss supper." He got up to leave.
"Dan. Thanks. I’ll call a Bobwhite meeting tonight."
He left Trixie alone with her thoughts. "I suppose, after the meeting, I should finish that talk with Jim." She imagined that she would feel better then. The weight on her chest would go away. But she felt a wave of grief roll towards her. Trixie decided to try to outrun it.
She followed the path and took a smaller fork—one that went around the pond instead of over it. The narrow path took her under a windmill that drew up water from the pond and spit it back in over her head. A few moments later, she came out on a gravel road. A sign on the other side of the road read, "Pawnee Earth Lodge" with an arrow steering her north.
Trixie hadn’t been out here. Looking south, she could see the Taylor Ranch, 1893 Farm, the Base Ball field, and the rural church and school. She remembered someone mentioning that the buffalo pen was by the Earth Lodge, and Trixie had never seen a buffalo. She headed north and walked up past a grass-covered hill with a tunnel-like entrance.
The large pen was surrounded by long grass. There were only three buffalo. Their curly hides looked like they were inviting her to touch them, but as one looked her in the eye, Trixie knew these animals were to be left to themselves.
While in the midst of a staring contest, Trixie heard gravel crunching. Turning around, she saw no one. A teepee was set up nearby, and Trixie made a beeline to it. She bent down to go through the low opening. It was dim inside, and empty except for some mats around the edge.
Trixie left the teepee and approached the Earth Lodge. As she went in the entrance, she smelled the cool, damp earth and was startled as the lights clicked on. Trixie walked deep into the man-made hill, around the fire pit surrounded by hollow gourds and turtle shells, and along the curved walls lined with beds of animal pelts.
"Something doesn’t feel right," she said to herself. It wasn’t the lighting or the clear plastic covering over the smoke hole in the ceiling. She knew this was a modern recreation. "So then," she thought, "it wouldn’t be this wire fence to keep visitors from touching the artifacts. No, the thing that is wrong would be the fact that I’m INSIDE the fence!" Metal was clanking at the end of the tunnel, and Trixie realized too late that she was being locked inside.
"Wait!" she yelled, but whoever it was would not listen to her. She rattled the wrought iron gate and yelled as loudly as she could. Trixie felt cold as she realized she had been intentionally trapped. How long would it be before she was missed? Would anyone ever think of looking for her way out here? What was it Dan was saying about her disappearing, anyway? Trixie sat down on a bed of fur and watched a mouse playing in the fire pit. "Will Jim worry if I miss supper?" she thought. "Or will he just think I am still avoiding him?"
Then everything went dark.
To Be Continued