*All Ages, future story
Official disclaimer: Go away! Leave us alone! We just wanna' have fun with fanfic! No money has exchanged hands, my palm has not been crossed with gold. Darn, heck! I've just borrowed our favorite characters for just a little while and they have been returned unharmed.
Dan's Secret
by Diann
Trixie had just finished her case notes on a surveillance job that she and Honey had completed for Marsha Randall, a Sleepyside attorney for whom they did work on a frequent basis. In fact, they had an appointment to meet Ms. Randall the next morning at 9:30 to deliver the results of the case they had just completed plus get the details on a new assignment.
Trixie glanced up at the clock and saw that it was 12:30. She had been working steadily since 9:00 on her reports. Trixie stretched her arms and legs and tossed her sandy blond hair to work the kinks out of her neck. Trixie turned and looked out the window of their office that sat right on Main Street, just across from the bank where her father worked.
A group of high school seniors was parading down the sidewalk, reveling in their new-found freedom. It was what had become known as "Watch Out Wednesday," since seniors had to attend school for only a half a day before graduation on Friday night and sometimes tended to get into a little mischief during the afternoon.
A tall blonde-headed boy appeared at the window. He looked in at Trixie and gave a "yeah, I'm cool" grin at Trixie. Trixie returned the smile and waved. I can't believe that Bobby, Terry and Larry are graduating from high school. Man, I feel old! Trixie thought. Woo, boy! her thoughts continued as she saw Rachel Wilder, all five-foot-two of herself, sidle up to Bobby and put her arm through his.
Following Bobby and Rachel was a group of boys chanting, "Seniors rule! No more school!" And quite naturally, behind the boys was a flock of giggling senior girls.
"Oh, please tell me we didn't act that goofy when we were seniors," she begged of Honey, who was supposed to be preparing some invoices for mailing.
When she didn't get a response, she turned to see Honey, with elbows on her desk and chin cupped in hands, staring dreamily at a picture taken just a few weeks earlier. The picture was of Honey, wearing a yellow and white stripe swimsuit and a bright wide smile, and a very handsome dark-haired man, sitting side by side on a turquoise beach towel on a dazzling white beach. Honey would have called the man "gorgeous" while Trixie just called him "brother."
"Hey, you!" Trixie called out and devilishly tossed a paperclip at Honey. "The geese don't fly south until winter if you're thinking about joining them!"
"Smarty-pants!" Honey retorted and flung the paperclip back at Trixie.
An all-out paperclip war broke out and the girls shrieked with laughter as they tossed and dodged the barrage of flying office supplies. The ringing of the phone caused an abrupt truce in the battle.
Trixie sucked in her cheeks in an effort to quell her laughter and to put on a "straight voice."
"Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency. Trixie Belden speaking."
"Trixie! Hey! It's Dan."
"Dan! What a surprise. How are you?"
"I'm doing fine. Say, how many Bob-Whites will be home tomorrow night?" Dan asked.
Trixie quickly replied, "Actually all of us, except for you, unless you're coming into town. Bobby, Terry and Larry graduate Friday night and Brian and Diana are arriving tonight on the 7 o'clock train from New York."
"Wow. I still can't get used to that idea. I guess I still think of Bobby as that scared little boy I pulled out from that hole long ago and far away."
"Then you have some idea how I, well, we all feel," Trixie responded. "Any particular reason why you wanted to know?"
"As a matter of fact, there is. I'm coming in tonight on the on the 6:15 train and wanted all of us to get together tomorrow night at the clubhouse for just a few minutes, if you can get everyone together," Dan requested.
"Yeah, sure, that would be great." Trixie thought for just a moment. "Would 8:30 be okay? Moms is having a graduation dinner for Bobby tomorrow night and I think the Lynches are doing the same for the twins. We should be through by 8:30."
"That'll be just fine, Trixie. Thanks."
Trixie snapped her fingers and sat up a little straighter. "Say, I know what. Honey and I are staying in town a little late tonight to pick up Brian and Diana. We'll just get to the train station a little earlier and get you too."
"No!" Dan shouted, causing Trixie to pull the phone away from her ear. "No, don't bother. I'll just see you guys tomorrow night at the clubhouse." With that, Dan hung up the phone, leaving Trixie staring at hers as though it would give an answer to Dan's sudden odd behavior.
Honey was looking at Trixie rather curiously. "What gives?"
Trixie replayed the conversation and ended with asking Honey's opinion as to why Dan so emphatically declined her offer.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe he just didn't want to put anyone out," Honey suggested.
Trixie just shook her head, her eyebrows knit in consternation. "I don't think so, Honey. The tone of his voice…" Trixie said, letting her words trail off at the end.
"Don't worry about it," Honey said with a wave of her hand. "If it'll make you feel better, we'll just get to the train station a little early and if he needs a lift, we'll already be there."
Honey and Trixie pulled up in the parking lot of the train station in Trixie's black cherry Jeep Cherokee at 6:10. They got out and made their way to the end of the platform. They had been standing there only a few minutes when they heard and then felt the rumble of the sleek silver train dubbed the Sleepyside Express.
The train pulled into the station and Trixie and Honey found themselves standing at the end of the train. The doors opened and many tired businessmen and women carrying briefcases, umbrellas, and laptop computers disembarked. Quiet Sleepyside had become a popular homeplace for those who wanted to escape the roar of the city at nights and on weekends. Trixie and Honey craned their necks to spot Dan and were just beginning to think he had not been on board.
As the crowds began to thin, Honey grabbed Trixie by the arm and pointed toward the front of the train. "There he is! Yoohoo! Dan!"
Trixie waved her arms and started toward their friend. Dan appeared to turn his head just slightly in their direction and then moved even more swiftly away from them into the train station.
"Well!" Trixie placed her hands on her hips and stamped her foot indignantly. "What do you make of that?"
Honey shook her head. "I have no idea. I thought he heard and saw us, but maybe not. Who do you suppose that was?"
"Who what was?" Trixie asked, and both laughed at Trixie's nonsensical question.
"That other man with Dan," Honey replied. "He was almost Dan's height but more slender. Or so it seemed, since he had on a trench coat. He had on a black ball cap and the back of his hair was a little long."
"Hmmm, I guess I get an "F" on observation tonight. I didn't see anyone with Dan," Trixie admitted. "I still think he's acting very strangely."
"Apparently he has something on his mind since he's asked for a meeting, so let's just let it go at that and wait for Brian to get here," Honey said, looking at her wristwatch, trying to will the minute hand to move faster toward 7:00.
Trixie grinned and replied, "Oh, Diana will be sooo happy to hear that you were waiting for her with breathless anticipation," playful sarcasm dripping in her voice.
"Grrr! You know what I mean!" Honey shot back, but both knew it was Brian she eagerly anticipated.
Fortunately for Honey, the 7:00 train arrived just a few minutes early and disengorged its passengers. Di was one of the first ones off, her outward beauty as deep as her inward beauty. She was breathtakingly gorgeous in her red silk Dior pants suit with a gold shell accented with a red, black and gold scarf. Honey sucked in her breath as she saw Brian emerge from the train after Diana, his white long-sleeved Oxford shirt and well fitting Levi jeans looking very sexy on his long lean body.
"Brian!" "Honey!" "Trixie!" "Di!" The four Bob-Whites were running toward each other, ignoring the other departing commuters who dared get in their way. To say the least, it was a joyous reunion and the talk was non-stop as they gathered the luggage, put it into the Jeep, and drove off toward Glen Road. Trixe told them about getting together with Dan the next night but did not mention his odd behavior.
Honey was uncharacteristically late coming into the office the next morning. Trixie, quite naturally, couldn't help but tease her just a little.
"My, my, Miss Wheeler. What a night owl you've become."
"Guilty as charged. Take me away. But please put me in a cell next to that hunk of a brother of yours!" Honey replied.
Trixie shuddered at the thoughts of her brother being a "hunk". "Whatever pleases you, partner. But we've got to get a move-on if we're going to be at Marsha's at 9:30."
Trixie and Honey left their office, locking the door behind them, and started up the sidewalk, stepping over the themes and notebooks discarded by the reveling seniors the day before that the sanitation workers had not reached.
Honey had started into another Brian story, at least the third one in the last five minutes, when Trixie suddenly stopped. "Look, coming out of the diner. It's Dan with two boxes in his hand. And look, he's going into the hotel across the street. Now that's really strange."
Honey chewed her lip and replied, "Yes, it certainly is. For one, no one, except for maybe Mart, can eat all of the breakfast special that Joe fixes, much less two. Second, why is Dan staying at the hotel, rather than with Mr. Maypenny?"
"Maybe that's what he wants to discuss. Maybe he and Mr. Maypenny have had a falling out and he needs advice," Trixie speculated. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see."
As they rounded the corner onto Maple, Trixie and Honey found another unusual event taking place. There on the sidewalk in front of City Drug Store was Chief Molinson and Detective Jon Stephens putting up crime scene tape over the front of the drug store.
"Chief! What's going on?" Trixie inquired.
"Do you just have a nose for trouble, Belden?" Chief Molinson asked. The irritation in his voice was more from habit than were his true feelings, but he would never let on to Trixie how much he had come to admire her over the years. "Actually, we had a break-in here at the drug store last night."
"Any clues as to who did it? What was taken? What time did it happen? How did the thieves get it?" Trixie rapid-fired questions as she pulled out a notepad and pen from her purse.
"Whoa, girl." The Chief held up his hand. "I don't think we've hired you as a consultant, but yes, there are a few clues. Apparently we have two perpetrators. A display of cough syrup was knocked over and several of the bottles were broken. The thieves stepped in the spilled syrup and left a few prints inside. One was most likely a man wearing boots approximately size 11. The other may be a man. It was a little difficult to tell. The foot length could have been a man, maybe a size 8, but the print was more slender than a man's would normally be, although a pointed-toe cowboy style boot could account for the slender outline.
"It looks like the only thing taken was narcotics, mostly pain killers and mood-altering drugs like Darvocet, Valium, and Xanax. They got in by knocking out the small glass pane in the delivery door in the back and reaching in and opening the door. I've been trying to get Mr. Johnson to replace that door for years. Now it looks like he finally will." Chief Molinson rubbed his hand across his chin as though he was trying to remember something. "Oh, yeah, we found traces of blood on the door, so we think that one of them must have cut his hand on the glass. So if you see a narked-out man with a cut hand, let me know."
"Okay, Chief, we'll keep our eyes open and let you know if we see anything," Honey answered. "Right, Trixie?" "Trixie?" she repeated when Trixie did not respond.
Trixie had that faraway look in her eyes that told Honey that Trixie's mind was racing at a hundred miles an hour, processing the bits of information just given to them and possibly linking it to other data she had stored in her detective's brain.
Honey took Trixie by the arm and led her away from the scene, waving good-bye to Chief Molinson and Detective Stephens. Honey knew better than to ask questions, that Trixie would spew forth her concerns when she got them into perspective. She hurried them toward Marsha's office to make their 9:30 meeting.
After returning to the office, Honey spent the rest of the day getting mumbled, short responses from Trixie whenever she felt it necessary to communicate with her. It was almost 4:30 when Trixie, running her fingers up and down her pencil, turned toward Honey. "I've had something pretty serious on my mind today."
Honey suppressed the urge to clutch at her heart and say, "No! For real?" She did encourage Trixie to continue.
Trixie bent her head down and squeezed her forehead between her fingers, as though trying to crush out some heinous thought. "I know you're not going to agree with this. In fact, I already know that you'll think I've gone off the deep end, but please hear me out. I'm thinking that the culprit at the drug store might be Dan."
As expected, Honey was shocked at Trixie's accusation. "My gosh, Trixie! How can you even think a thing like that? I'm beyond horrified."
Trixie sighed and put her head in her hands. After a moment, she looked up and continued her thoughts. "I know, I'm pretty horrified with myself, but it is possible. First of all, we have to remember what Dan's doctor told us when he was recovering from severe depression after being shot by that lunatic mobster. Dr. Holstiner told us that there were very few people that could come out of the tremendous physical and mental trauma that Dan had totally unscathed. She said that Dan was very remarkable in his rehabilitation, but that we should always watch for signs of his lapsing back into his drug dependency or mental instability.
"Dan calls us, saying he's coming back to town and wants to meet with us. Then he ignores us at the train station, although we both know he saw us. You yourself said that another man, a slender man was with him. And they are apparently staying at the hotel, since we saw Dan going there with two boxes of food. The drugs that were taken fit into the type that someone in Dan's situation would want--something for physical pain and something for mental pain. And the shoe size is consistent with Dan's size."
Honey could understand Trixie's logic but she felt in her heart that Trixie was way off base. "I don't know. I understand what you're saying, but I really think you're twisting facts to make them fit a certain situation. Dan has not given any hint that he's having either mental or physical difficulties. I think the FBI would have caught on to that right away and not offered him the position at Quantico when he finishes his graduate work."
Trixie leaned back in her chair and in doing saw caught the time on the wall clock. "Gleeps! It's after 5:00! I promised Moms I'd be home by 5:00 to help with Bobby's graduation dinner!"
Trixie jumped up and began shutting down her computer when Honey stopped her. "You scooch on, Trix. I'll take care of shutting everything down and locking up. I'll call your Mom and tell her you're on your way. I've got the feeling she asked you to be home at 5:00 because she really needed you by 5:30," Honey said with a knowing smile.
"Thanks! I'll see you and Jim tonight at supper. It's too bad your folks are out of town. I know that Brian wanted to ask your dad about some investment opportunities he heard about."
Bobby's graduation supper was a delicious success, as was always the case when Helen Belden donned an apron to prepare a feast. Everyone ate meat loaf, macaroni and cheese, fresh green beans and sliced tomatoes from the Belden garden, and potato salad until they thought the would explode. They all groaned when Mrs. Belden came through the door with strawberry shortcake but not a one refused the succulent dessert.
Bobby opened his gifts and had everyone laughing as he found that each one had given him money. "Well, it's my favorite color and it fits!" he proclaimed.
As soon as the dishes were done, Trixie, Honey, Jim, Brian and Mart donned rain jackets as a light mist had begun to fall and made their way down the familiar path to the Bob-Whites' clubhouse. They could see the lights on and the figure of a man pacing back and forth.
Dan seemed startled as they came in the door and, with his hands jammed into the pockets of his rain coat, he nervously spoke to the others when they came in. He continued his pacing, his eyes darting toward the windows every few seconds. After just a few minutes a car crept up toward the clubhouse.
"Oh! I wonder who that is? I'll be right back."
Before anyone could say anything, Dan started to turn and run out the door. He bumped into Mart, who had been looking at the shelves that held their ice skates to see if any repairs were needed. As they collided, Dan instinctively pulled his hands out of his pockets and put them on Mart's shoulders. "Sorry." And out he ran.
To Honey's and Trixie's horror, they saw that Dan's left hand was bandaged.
As Brian caught up on all the latest around Sleepyside with Jim and Mart, Trixie and Honey leaned together and spoke in low voices, edged with uncertainty.
"Oh, Trixie, did you see his hand? It was bandaged. He's as nervous as a turkey at Thanksgiving. I pray you're wrong, but things are certainly beginning to point that way."
Trixie's eyes were filled with despair. "For once, I hope I'm incredibly wrong."
About that time, Diana burst in and once again everyone shared a cheerful reunion. Everyone, except Dan, who had come back in behind Di, but was shifting from one foot to the other.
Dan spoke up. "Uh, everyone, I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you here." The six pairs of eyes glued to him confirmed he was correct. "We've always shared in everything, all the good times and all the bad ones."
Honey felt a slight nudge in her ribs. She didn't look but she knew the source of the nudge.
"I guess it's time for me to let you in on something." As he spoke he went to the door, stepped out and then came back in with the slender man with the trench coat and black cap. The bill of the cap was pulled down and the coat collar was pulled up, hiding the man's features.
Trixie and Honey both sharply inhaled and sat at rapt attention.
The stranger then removed the cap and revealed that it was actually a woman, a very pretty woman, almost as tall as Dan, with short brown hair and brown doe eyes.
Dan swelled with pride as he put his arm around the girl. "And now, my very best friends, I'm proud to introduce you to my wife, Jodi."
The other six Bob-Whites immediately jumped up and ran toward the beaming couple. The girls hugged Jodi and welcomed her to the family, while the guys slapped Dan on the back and teased him about being the first to go. The commotion went on for quite some time. When it finally died down, Trixie asked him about his bandaged hand.
"Oh that! I'd almost forgotten!" Dan said as he began unwinding the cloth strips. "I didn't want you to see my wedding band before I could reveal my surprise."
An impromptu party broke out as they begin digging out soft drinks from the fridge and unopened snacks from the cabinet. No one minded that the drinks were just a little flat and the chips slightly stale. To them, it was the best party they'd attended in a long time. Dan told them how he had to sneak Jodi into town and had hoped that no one had seen Mr. Maypenny to say anything about his being in town.
"Hey, did you guys hear that Detective Stephens caught the guys who broke into the drug store?" Mart interjected.
"Well, thank goodness, that mystery's solved!" Trixie said, as she winked at Honey.
Honey put her arm around her best friend. "Amen, sister!"
The End