“We soon drifted apart. There was something about him I didn’t quite trust, and I was glad when he finally quit the lab.
“I’ve been on vacation for the past couple of weeks. When I got back yesterday evening, I got a call from a friend of mine at the lab, telling me someone had broken in last week and stolen some of our botulism toxin. Then, a few hours later, the sergeant called me to ask if I knew Lawrence Howard. He told me about what had happened, and I put two and two together.”
“Right,” Sergeant Molinson said. “Lawrence Howard confessed to the break-in at the lab as soon as I asked him about it. I guess he knows he’s in enough trouble already, without being uncooperative.”
“As soon as I’d finished talking to Sergeant Molinson on the telephone, I got in my car and drove up here,” David Maypenny added. “I’ve been wanting to get in touch with my uncle for a long, long time, but I never dared. Hearing that he’d been willing to meet me—that is, to meet Lawrence Howard posing as me—gave me the courage I needed.”
Mr. Maypenny smiled at his nephew and patted him on the shoulder. Watching, Trixie felt a lump in her throat. Mr. Maypenny had found his missing nephew after all. She had a feeling that this time he wouldn’t lose him.
“Oh!” Trixie exclaimed. “John Score!” She turned to the young environmentalist. “Are you still under arrest, too?”
Score shook his head. “It took some talking, but I finally made the sergeant believe that I was doing exactly what I said I was—looking for evidence against International Pine. He’s agreed to let me go, if I leave Sleepyside—really leave— today.”
“And you’re going to?” Trixie asked.
“I am,” Score replied. “I haven’t found anything that the government would accept as ecological damage. I have let Mr. Maypenny know that he doesn’t have to sell his land if he doesn’t want to. That’s about all I can do, I decided at last. The people of Sleepyside will have to make their own decision on the basis of the facts.”
“No, they won’t,” Jim Frayne said softly. Trixie jumped, startled. She hadn’t heard him come into the office. Turning to look at him, she asked, “What are you talking about? What have you been up to? You look like the cat that swallowed the canary.”
“I feel like one, too,” Jim told her. “Dad just dropped me off from our meeting with the town council and the president of International Pine.“
“It’s good news, isn’t it?” Honey guessed. “Oh, Jim, tell us about it!”
“Well, you know how upset Dad was when we got home last night,” Jim began. “He woke me up early this morning and told me he’d been up all night, thinking about what had happened. He said that the poisoned ducks, along with the Bob-Whites’ midnight escapade, had convinced him that the whole thing had gone too far. He would reach a solution this morning, he said.
“He called the president of International Pine and the chairman of the town council and demanded that they meet with him. He wanted to work out a compromise.
“At the meeting, he asked the president of International Pine if there was another piece of land he could use for the expansion—something closer to town, away from the preserve.
“The president said no. He told Dad that, without the profits from the timber they’d be able to clear off the parcel of land they wanted, they couldn’t possibly afford to pay for land, a new building, and the equipment they needed. They’d have to build somewhere else, he said.“
“That doesn’t sound like good news to me,” Trixie said glumly.
“Just let me finish,” Jim said, trying to sound stern, although his green eyes were sparkling. “When Dad heard the president say ‘new building,’ he snapped his fingers and shouted, ‘I’ve got it!’ He turned to the council chairman and reminded him of that big warehouse on the edge of town. The company that had owned it went broke, and the town had repossessed it for back taxes. The town had tried to sell it, but nobody was interested.”
“I know that building,” Trixie said. “It’s a wreck. All the windows are broken, and kids have spray painted their initials all over it.“
“That’s the building, all right,” Jim said. “It isn’t a wreck, though. It’s sound inside. The broken windows can be fixed, and the spray paint can be removed.
“Within ten minutes, the president of International Pine had made an offer for it, and the chairman of the council had accepted. The offer is only a third of what a new building would cost, which more than makes up for not having the timber to use.”
“Yippee!” Trixie shouted. “International Pine will expand, Sleepyside will have jobs, and the preserve won’t have to be touched!”
“That’s it, in a nutshell,” Jim concluded.
“Isn’t it all just perfectly perfect?” Honey asked. “Not quite,” Brian said. “You and Trixie have a request to make, remember?”
Trixie groaned and Honey looked at Brian beseechingly, but he just looked back at her, unmoved.
“Well, what is it?” Sergeant Molinson asked. “I do owe you a favor for helping me catch Lawrence Howard, although I wish you’d have just told me about him rather than trying to do it yourself.”
Trixie and Honey looked at one another, each waiting for the other to speak.
Finally Honey said, “Well, Sergeant Molinson, what we need is— I mean, you did ask us to be here this morning, and it is Monday, and that is a school day, and— Well, would you write an excuse to our principal so we can go to school?” Sergeant Molinson hooted with laughter. “If it will get you kids back into school and out of mischief, I’ll write you the best excuse you ever had,” he said, picking up a pen.
He scribbled a note and handed it to Trixie. “There you are,” he said. “If you’re smart, you’ll devote yourself to your schoolwork from now on and stay away from mysteries. There have been enough dead ducks around here for a while. We wouldn’t want to add you to the list.”
Trixie gulped. “It was a close call,” she admitted. “But after all, everything worked out just fine, didn’t it?”
Mart groaned, grabbed his sister by the shoulders, and pushed her toward the door. “Let’s be off,” he said. “Immerse yourself in the intricacies of algebra for a while; you won’t have time for mysteries.”
Trixie started out the door, then stopped and turned around. “There’s just one more thing I want,” she said, “but it will have to wait until after school.”
“What is it?” Honey asked.
“I want an ice-cream cone with two scoops of ice cream—one chocolate and one vanilla,” Trixie said.
Her friends looked at one another in bewilderment as Trixie, smiling to herself, walked out the door.
Table of Contents
Mr. Maypenny’s Mystery ● 1
A Clash of Viewpoints ● 2
Bob-Whites Divided! ● 3
Dan’s Surprise ● 4
Two Visitors ● 5
A Sudden Departure ● 6
Uproar in the Auditorium ● 7
Shocking News • 8
An Inconclusive Vote ● 9
The Car in the Woods • 10
The fugitive ● 11
A Devious Plot ● 12
Terror! ● 13
At the Police Station ● 14
The Mystery at Maypenny's Page 13