The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels

by Mildred Benson

  “You kid yourself you’ll see your father again,” he jeered. “Well, you won’t! Mr. Parker is dead and you may as well get used to the idea.”

  Penny’s eyes burned. “You say that only to torture me!”

  “It’s the truth. If you weren’t so blind you’d acknowledge it. Your father tried to run a gang of professional tire-thieves out of this town, and they did for him.”

  “You seem very certain of your facts, Mr. Schirr. Perhaps you know some of the higher-ups personally.”

  “How would I?”

  “Your knowledge is so complete,” Penny said scathingly.

  “I’m only telling you my opinion,” Schirr growled, now on the defensive. “If you want to ride along in a sweet dream that’s Okay with me.”

  “I want to get at the truth,” said Penny shortly. “Do you have one scrap of evidence that Dad has fallen into the hands of enemies?”

  Schirr hesitated, knowing well that an affirmative answer might lead to questioning from the police.

  “I don’t have any knowledge of the case,” he said. “At least not for publication!”

  Flashing a superior smile, he pushed past Penny, and went out of the building.

  CHAPTER 16

  A DOOR IN A BOX

  Penny scarcely knew what to think of Harley Schirr’s actions. All her accusations were true, of that she was sure. But she was unable to decide whether or not he had any information about her father’s strange disappearance.

  “The old snooper may be hand in glove with the tire thieves!” she thought bitterly. “I wouldn’t put it past him. If I could prove anything, wouldn’t I like to turn him over to the police!”

  Climbing the stairs, Penny explained briefly to the Star deskman what had occurred.

  “Shirr here again!” he exclaimed. “Why, I’m sure he never came through the newsroom.”

  “No, he got into Dad’s office by means of that old hall door. Tomorrow I want a new lock put on.”

  “I’ll have it taken care of myself,” promised the deskman.

  Reentering her father’s office, Penny gathered up the mail and carefully locked both doors. She then returned to the waiting taxicab. During the ride home she made no mention of Mr. Schirr, preferring not to worry the housekeeper.

  Later in Mr. Parker’s study, she and Mrs. Weems examined every letter written in response to the reward offer. Not even one of them offered the slightest promise.

  “I’ll turn everything over to the police,” Penny said with a sigh. “Maybe they’ll find a clue I’ve not considered important.”

  Both she and Mrs. Weems were feeling the effects of such a long period of strain. Meals had been irregular, appetites poor. Penny in particular had lost so much weight that she looked thin and sallow. Yet somehow she managed to keep up her strength and to face each day with hope.

  “Mrs. Weems,” she said the next morning at breakfast,“if you’ll advance me some money, I’m going on another taxi jaunt today.”

  “Not to the Harrison place.”

  “No, out to Mattie Williams’ garage. I’m convinced that place is dealing in stolen tires. If only I can reconstruct the evidence which disappeared in Dad’s portfolio, I may get a clue that will lead to him.”

  Without protest, Mrs. Weems gave Penny the money. Secretly she thought that the girl would do much better to turn all of her information over to the police. However, she realized that Penny needed activity to keep her from brooding, so she wisely did not discourage her.

  “Don’t get into any trouble,” she warned anxiously.

  “No danger of that, Mrs. Weems. I’ve not enough pep for it these days.”

  Engaging the same cabman who had served her so well the previous night, Penny motored to the Williams’garage. She had made no plans and scarcely knew what she would say when she entered the place. As she debated, the big doors of the building opened, and a tow car drove away with Mattie at the wheel.

  “There she goes!” thought Penny, disappointed. “I’m afraid my interview will have to wait.”

  Getting out, she sauntered into the garage office. Mattie’s partner, Sam, was nowhere to be seen. Nor did he appear to be working in the main part of the building.

  Penny waited a few minutes, then wandered about the floor where a number of cars had been stored. No workmen were in evidence.

  “This might be a good time to do a bit of looking around!” she thought suddenly. “I’ll never have a better chance.”

  Penny opened the doors into the room where she had observed Sam Burkholder mount a new tire on the car of a customer. One wall was stacked high with large wooden boxes, not unlike those she and Louise had seen delivered by the truck driver, Hank Biglow, on the night of the blizzard.

  She thumped one of the boxes with her knuckles. It gave off a hollow, empty sound. She tried another box with no better luck. Some of the big crates had been opened. They contained nothing except a little brown wrapping paper.

  Disappointed, Penny turned away. But as she moved toward the exit, her eyes flashed upon one of the boxes which had escaped her attention. Boards were loose at one end, and could be hinged back on their nails like a door.

  Intrigued, Penny crossed to the crate. As she pulled on one of the boards, all swung back as a unit.

  “Why, it’s like a door!” she thought. “A door in a box!”

  Penny gazed into the box and was further amazed. It had no back wall. Instead, she saw a long, empty tunnel formed by several crates piled one in front of the other. And at the very end stood a real door!

  “Maybe this is the pay-off!” thought Penny excitedly.

  Pulling the boards into place behind her, she stooped and made her way through the tunnel to the door. It was locked.

  “I’ll bet a cent stolen tires are stored in that room!” reasoned Penny. “If only I could get in there!”

  Her mind did not dwell long on the problem. A moment later she was alarmed to hear a low murmur of voices. Someone was approaching the storage room from the main part of the garage. Unless she wished to be trapped in the tunnel of boxes, she must abandon the investigation!

  Penny started hurriedly toward the opening. Before she could get through the tunnel, the big double doors squeaked open and she heard heavy footsteps in the room. Peering out through a knothole in one of the boxes, she saw Mattie Williams and her partner, Sam. They were arguing and their voices came to her plainly:

  “Guess you didn’t look for me back quite so soon, Sam,” Mattie reprimanded her partner. “When I went off in the tow car you figured I’d be gone a long time. Thought it would give you a good chance to tamper with the books!”

  “That’s not so, Mattie. I was marking up some expenses like I always do.”

  “I’ve been aiming to have a straight talk with you for a long time, Sam,” the woman resumed. “That’s why I asked you to step back here in the storage room. No use having the customers know about our differences.”

  “I don’t see what you’ve got to squawk about,” Sam retorted. “Ain’t you made more money since I teamed up with you than you ever did before?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you’re always afraid I’ll cheat you out of a penny.”

  “I’ve caught you in some dishonest tricks. About those tires—”

  A loud, insistent tooting of an automobile horn broke up the conversation. Abandoning the argument, Mattie and Sam went to serve the impatient customer.

  Penny did not tarry. Crawling from the tunnel, she glanced about for a means of escape. Fortunately, the room had an outside exit. Making use of it, she returned to the waiting taxi, without seeing either Sam or Mattie again.

  “Police station, Joe,” she instructed.

  “How do you want to go?” the cab driver inquired. “This road or No. 32?”

  “Let’s drive past the old Harrison place.”

  “Sure,” grinned Joe. “Maybe we’ll see that spook again!”

  The cab bumped along the frozen road, soo
n coming within view of the hillside estate. Joe slowed down without being requested to do so.

  “I was tellin’ the boys about that place last night,” he flung over his shoulder. “They tell me the owner is this guy Deming. He’s gone East for the winter. A big, fat, bald-headed man.”

  “Our ghost was a thin person.”

  “Yeah, I was thinking that,” agreed Joe. “Maybe Deming’s got a sick relative or something.”

  The explanation did not satisfy Penny. With troubled eyes she gazed toward the rambling old house which by daylight looked so deserted. No smoke curled from the chimneys. Had it not been for a trail of footprints along the fence, she easily could have convinced herself that she had imagined the events of the previous night.

  “Say, who’s that trackin’ through the fields?” Joe suddenly demanded.

  Penny turned to glance in the direction that the cabman pointed. Her heart did a little flip-flop. A woman in a long black coat, market basket on her arm, was hastening toward the rear door of the estate house.

  “Stop the cab, Joe!” she cried.

  The car came to a halt with a little sideways skid. Leaping out, Penny plunged through the drifts and was able to confront the woman at the rear gate of the premises.

  “How do you do,” she greeted her breathlessly.

  The woman was so startled that she nearly dropped her market basket. Confused, she stammered a reply and started to unlock the gate.

  “Just a moment, please,” requested Penny. “May I come inside and talk to you?”

  “About what?”

  “My father’s disappearance. You made an appointment to meet me at the cemetery. Why did you run away?”

  The bold attack was not without an effect. The woman gasped, and fumbled nervously with the key to the padlock.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she muttered.

  “Unless you tell me everything you know regarding my father’s disappearance, I’ll call the police!”

  “The police—” the woman repeated, plainly frightened.

  “Yes,” Penny went on relentlessly, “this is a serious matter. It will do you no good to bluff.”

  The woman gave up trying to unlock the gate. Setting her basket down in the snow she said weakly:“You advertised a reward—”

  “I’ll still be glad to pay it for worthwhile information. What do you know about my father?”

  The woman drew a deep breath. “Well, I picked him up in my car after the accident.”

  “You did?” Penny became jubilant. “Where is he now?”

  “I can’t tell you that. Mr. Parker asked me to take him to Mercy Hospital. I let him off at the entrance to the grounds. That’s the last I saw of him.”

  “My father entered the hospital?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t remain to watch.”

  The story was disappointing. If true, Mr. Parker’s disappearance remained as mysterious as ever. Penny was silent a moment and then she asked the woman why she had fled from the cemetery.

  “Because I saw a police car parked behind the bushes,” the other answered defiantly. “And those detectives chased me, too! I only intended to be helpful and maybe win a reward. Now I want nothing to do with the case. I’ve told you everything I know.”

  The woman unlocked the gate and started to enter the grounds.

  “You’re not Mrs. Deming?” Penny asked quickly.

  “Who I am is my own business.”

  “I suppose the ghost is your own affair too!”

  “Ghost? What ghost?”

  “You live here, yet you haven’t learned that the grounds are haunted?” Penny inquired significantly. “Nearly every night a man in white wanders back and forth in the garden.”

  “I don’t know anything about it!” the woman said nervously. “I’ll not answer any more questions either!”

  Plainly frightened, she snapped shut the padlock of the gate and fled into the house.

  CHAPTER 17

  ADVENTURE BY MOONLIGHT

  A moment Penny stood gazing at the estate house. She considered climbing the iron fence and trying to gain entrance to the dwelling. Then, deciding that nothing would be achieved by again accosting the strange woman, she returned to the waiting taxi.

  “Where to?” asked the cabman.

  “It’s still the police station,” directed Penny, repeating an earlier order. “I have twice as much to report now.”

  As the cab pulled away, she noticed a movement of curtains at the front of the estate house. Evidently the woman who had fled, was watching.

  Joe made a quick trip to Riverview, depositing Penny at the doorstep of Central Station.

  “Will you need me any more?” he asked hopefully.

  “I may.”

  “Okay,” said Joe, slamming the cab door. “I’ll stick around. You know, I kinda like this job.”

  Once inside the police station, Penny inquired for Chief Jalman. Unable to see him, she asked to speak to the two detectives who had been assigned to her father’s case. Both men were away from the building.

  “Why not talk to Carl Burns?” suggested the desk sergeant. “He’s familiar with the case.”

  Penny was sent to see a heavy-set man who warmed himself by a steaming radiator. Evidently he had spent several hours in an unheated police car for he stamped his feet to restore circulation.

  “Mr. Burns?” inquired Penny.

  The man turned, staring at her. Penny returned the stare. She had seen the officer before and the recollection was not entirely pleasant. He was the same officer she had met near Mattie’s garage on the night of the blizzard.

  “What may I do for you?” he asked.

  Uncomfortably aware of the officer’s scrutiny, Penny began to tell of her visit to the Williams’garage. She stammered a bit and lost confidence.

  “You say you saw some big boxes at the garage,” he demanded. “What’s so suspicious about that?”

  Penny tried to explain about the tunnel of boxes which led to a hidden storage room. Even to her own ears the story had a fantastic sound.

  “What you think or surmise doesn’t go in this business!” the officer said rather rudely. “Did you actually see any stolen tires?”

  “Well, no, I didn’t,” Penny admitted. “The door was locked.”

  “Are you willing to swear out a warrant charging Mattie and her partner with dealing in stolen merchandise?”

  “I don’t suppose I’d dare do that. I thought if police would investigate—”

  “We can’t go on suspicions, Miss Parker. We act only on sound evidence.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter so much about the stolen tires,” Penny said desperately. “I have another clue—a really important one. I’ve found the woman who eluded Detectives Brandon and Fuller at the cemetery!”

  “Now we may get somewhere,” replied the officer. “Who is the woman? Where did you see her?”

  Penny told everything she knew about the woman who had taken her father to Mercy Hospital. Word for word she repeated their recent conversation together.

  “I’ll turn this evidence over to Detective Fuller,” the policeman promised. “He’ll probably want to question the woman himself.”

  “I hope he does it right away,” replied Penny. “She may take it into her head to skip out of town.”

  Officer Burns smiled wearily. “Just trust us to handle the case,” he said. “We know our business.”

  Penny left the station feeling none too satisfied. Although she had nothing against Mr. Burns, she sensed that he did not like her. She wondered if she could depend on him to repeat her story as she had told it.

  “If that estate house isn’t investigated immediately, I’ll do something myself!” she thought.

  Joe, the cabman, still waited. Signaling him, Penny regretfully explained that she would have no further use for his services.

  “Well, if you change your mind and want to do some more ghost huntin’ tonight, just give me a ring,�
�Joe grinned. “My number’s 20476.”

  Penny carefully wrote it down. She then walked to the nearby Star building where many matters awaited her attention. There she worked without interruption until late afternoon, taking only enough time to call the police station. Detective Fuller was not available. So far as she could learn, no investigation had been made of the Harrison estate.

  Thoroughly annoyed, Penny tramped home to dinner. Only a cold meal awaited her. Mrs. Weems, ill with a headache, had set out a few dishes on the kitchen table, and gone to bed.

  “It’s nothing,” the housekeeper insisted as Penny questioned her anxiously. “I’ve just worried too much the past few days.”

  “Let me call Doctor Barnell.”

  “Indeed not,” Mrs. Weems remonstrated. “I’ll be all right tomorrow.”

  Penny brewed a cup of tea and made the housekeeper as comfortable as she could. By the time she had eaten a snack and washed the dishes it was eight o’clock. Debating a long while, she went to the telephone and summoned a cab.

  “Number 20476,” she requested.

  Penny was zipping on her galoshes when the doorbell rang. Without giving her time to answer it, Louise Sidell marched into the kitchen bearing a freshly baked lemon pie.

  “Mother sent this over,” she explained. “I slipped on the ice coming over and nearly had a catastrophe!”

  Carefully Louise deposited the pie on the kitchen table. Cutting short Penny’s praise of it, she inquired alertly: “Going somewhere?”

  Penny explained that she intended to motor to the Harrison estate.

  “Not alone?” Louise demanded.

  “I’ll have to, I guess. Mrs. Weems is sick, so I can’t take her along.”

  “You could invite me,” Louise said eagerly. “I’ll telephone mother to come over and stay with Mrs. Weems while we’re gone!”

  The arrangement proved satisfactory to everyone. Mrs. Sidell came immediately to the house, and very shortly thereafter the girls sped away in Joe’s taxicab.

  The night was a pleasant one, mildly cold, but with a bright moon.

  “Park before you get to the estate,” Penny directed the driver. “We don’t want to be seen. It might defeat our purpose.”

  Joe drew up in a clump of trees some distance from the Harrison grounds. He then walked with the girls to the spiked fence. There was no sign of activity.