by Mabel Maney
"What people?" Velma wondered, looking around the deserted area.
"People on vacation," Midge shot back lamely.
Velma stifled a giggle. She hopped into her girlfriend's lap. "Honey, you know I would never say anything that would get you kicked out of that little club of yours back home," she teased.
"Oh, Jesus," Midge groaned. She covered her eyes with her hands. "I don't even want to think of how fast information like that would travel through the bar. I can just see it written on the washroom door in great big letters. Midge-Fontaine-likes-to-be-"
"Midge Fontaine likes to be what?" Jackie's voice rang out.
"Oh, good, you're back," Midge cried, eager to change the subject. "Did you see any way in? What's the back of the house like? Any more armed guards?"
"Midge Fontaine likes to be what?" Jackie asked Velma, ignoring Midge. Midge turned scarlet and shot Velma a warning look.
"Midge Fontaine likes to be right," Velma laughed.
"Midge usually is right," Jackie grinned, jumping into the front seat of Nancy's smart car.
"We saved some food for you," Velma told her, handing her a cup of steaming coffee and three cream cheese and jelly-nut sandwiches.
"I'm starving," Jackie admitted as she wolfed down the food. Then she told them what she had found. "The electrified gate rings the entire property, but there is a service entrance in the back. If we can convince the guard to open the door even a crack, we can muscle our way in. I'm sure between the two of us we can overpower any guard in there."
"The three of us," Velma added.
"I stand corrected," Jackie said with a grin. Midge groaned.
"The only question is how to get past Myra Meeks without raising any suspicions," Jackie mused.
"We could lure her away," Midge suggested.
"Or just tie her up and take the consequences later," Jackie added. "Of course, she'll eventually have to be let loose and then the whole Lake Merrimen police force will be swarming around down there."
"Oh, Myra will be going out soon," Velma blithely informed them.
"She will?" Jackie and Midge chorused in amazement.
"How do you know that?" Midge wondered.
Velma grinned. "It's simple logic, darling. I read in yesterday's newspaper that tonight is the annual Wives of the Atomic Age Dress-up Ball. Myra is sure to be there, seeing as she's the president of the organization."
"But that's hours from now," Jackie pointed out.
"Pay attention, kids," Velma said brightly. "Tonight Myra is going to a dress-up ball and you know what that means."
Midge and Jackie exchanged puzzled looks. "No we don't! " they cried.
Velma rolled her eyes in mock disgust. "It means she's going to the hairdresser's, and someone of Myra's stature is sure to have the first appointment of the day, which is always ten o'clock." Velma checked Midge's watch. "That's eleven minutes from now, and since it takes seven minutes to get to downtown River Depths-" As if on cue, the gate opened and a spiffy black Thunderbird with white leather seats emerged. Behind the wheel was Myra Meeks, clad in a smart summer suit, dark glasses and a white chiffon scarf. At her side was her poodle Precious, wearing a red rhinestone-studded collar.
The two girls looked at Velma with frank admiration.
"She can cook, too," Midge bragged.
"Now we've got to keep Myra Meeks away from the house for as long as possible," Jackie declared.
"We could send Velma to detain her somehow," Midge suggested. Velma gave her a little kick in the shins. "Ouch," Midge cried.
"No good," Jackie nixed the notion. "She knows Velma and might suspect something is up. Although I do like the idea of sending a girl. Now if we could only find just the right girl. Who do we know that we can trust, has similar interests to Myra, plus has the talent to pull this off?"
* * *
CHAPTER 36
* * *
Nelly to the Rescue
"I'd be delighted to help!" Uncle Nelly cried into the phone. If truth be told, he was getting a little antsy waiting around the Hardly house for something to happen. So far he had rearranged the den, wallpapered the guest washroom, sewn some darling tieback curtains for the kitchen and had just started to cut a pattern for a nifty new housedress.
"Swell, Uncle Nelly," Midge said into the telephone outside the diner where Velma was refilling their thermos with strong coffee. Caves were notoriously cold and damp and the girls would need all the fortification they could get. "All we know is, she's gone to get her hair done but we don't know where," Midge told him.
"No problem," Uncle Nelly assured her. "I know for a fact that Mr. Francis does her 'do. I'll call and have him prolong her comb-out, which will give me time to select just the right outfit, hop in my car and race downtown to head her off."
"Do whatever you have to do to keep her occupied," Midge urged him. "We've got to have plenty of time to get into her summer house and find the entrance to the caverns. Have you heard from the others?" she then asked.
Uncle Nelly confirmed that both teams had apparently reached their destination and that the transmitters were blinking away on the Radar-O-Scope.
"Good luck with Mrs. Meeks," Midge cried. She had decided against telling Uncle Nelly about the impending explosion. He would need his wits about him when dealing with Myra Meeks.
"All systems go for Operation Stop Myra," Uncle Nelly replied.
"The boys found a way into the caverns, and Nancy and Cherry are inside the Sanitarium," Midge reported.
"All the more reason for us to hurry," Jackie exclaimed. When Velma returned from the diner, the girls headed back to the Meekses' summer house, gulping coffee and discussing their strategy on the way. The very first thing they had to do was find a way inside the guarded house, even if it meant using the gun strapped to Jackie's side!
Midge noticed "Secret Love" was playing on the radio. "A song about unrequited love is the last thing we need," she thought. She turned the dial, searching for a new station when she heard Fennel Hardly's name.
"What's that?" Jackie cried. Midge turned up the volume. A man's voice crackled over the radio.
"Judge Milton Meeks today issued an arrest warrant for well-known detective Fennel P. Hardly, charging him with espionage and consorting with known Russian spies. According to NASA officials, the plans for the latest rocket project, the MaxxThruster, reported stolen last week, were found in Fennel P. Hardly's possession early today after investigators searched the detective's pockets."
"I hope they didn't search his pockets too closely," Midge muttered as she remembered what Cherry had told her about Fennel's true identity.
"If those plans were found on him, they were planted," Jackie growled. "And if it's a lie, Judge Meeks is really playing hardball. But why? What's his gripe with Fennel?
"We've got to be really careful," Jackie added a warning.
"I hope we're doing the right thing," Midge muttered as they sped along the lakeside road. She took a good, long look at her girlfriend. If anything ever happened to Velma, Midge didn't know what she'd do!
"I know what you mean, Midge," Jackie said. "Uncle Nelly's an awfully nice fellow. I feel bad sticking him with Myra. But I have confidence in him. Besides, my experience with self-important people like Myra Meeks is that they're all talk; the minute something threatening happens, they fold like a leaf in the wind."
"I don't like that Myra Meeks," Midge admitted. She scowled as she remembered the meddlesome matron's manipulative manner during Nancy's murder trial.
Jackie shook her head. This was becoming much more than a simple kidnapping. Somewhere in this pleasant lakeside resort town, a bomb was going to go off, and they had to find it! "If we fail, a great many people could be in grave danger," Jackie thought glumly. "And the good name of Hardly will be forever besmirched!"
* * *
CHAPTER 37
* * *
To the Tunnels!
"Those extra cream-cheese jelly-nut sandwiches sure came i
n handy," Midge grinned. They stood back as Jackie used the butt of her gun to smash a first floor window. "Let's hurry before those dogs finish that sack lunch," Jackie proposed as she looked over her shoulder. The two German shepherds were fighting over a butter split hard roll, but they wouldn't be for long!
"And my new handcuffs were just what we needed for that guard," Midge added. "Although it's a darn shame to waste a perfectly good set of cuffs like that."
"You have more at home, honey," Velma consoled her.
Jackie gave a little laugh, put her jacket on the window ledge to guard against shards of glass and pulled herself over. Midge helped Velma through, then pulled herself up. "We broke into this place in record time and with no casualties," Jackie praised them.
"Except that guard," Midge smiled.
"He'll be okay once someone gets him out of that tree," Jackie assured her. They were in a room filled with comfortable plaidcovered furniture and a fully stocked bar. "This must be Myra's play room," Midge remarked as she took a look at the plaques covering one wall. "Wow. She's the head of the Literary Society, the Etiquette Club, the Dramatic Club and the Wives of the Atomic Age. Oh, and she volunteers at the River Depths Sanitarium," Midge added. She read a plaque aloud:
"-and it's signed, Dr. Fraud, River Depths Sanitarium."
Awarded to Mrs. Myra Meeks for her meritorious service as A Friend of the Insane
"I hope Myra Meeks doesn't go there today. Why, she might blow Nancy's cover," Jackie said worriedly. "Let's get to the cellar and find that tunnel entrance." They raced out of the den and were halfway through the living room when they heard the front door open.
"Quick," Jackie whispered as she pointed to a door. "Let's hide in here!" They found themselves in a closet practically bursting with fur coats. Leaving the door open a crack, they listened in nervous anticipation as someone entered the house and walked across the marble flooring of the hallway.
"There's two of them," Velma whispered in a barely audible tone. "One is wearing wingtips and the other is in high heels. Three-inch spikes with a very narrow toe."
Midge and Jackie exchanged worried looks. Could it be that Myra Meeks and her husband had come home? The footsteps abruptly stopped. The intruders were mere feet from the girls!
"Good thing my mother's not home," they heard a girl exclaim. "Funny, though, there's usually a guy with a gun out there."
Midge's mouth dropped open. Why, it was Myra Meeks' daughter, Micky Meeks, who had proven such a help in their last mystery. "Phew," Midge thought.
"Does your mother always have a guard?" Micky's feminine companion asked.
"My mother's really paranoid," Micky chuckled. "She thinks there's a communist hiding behind every bush." A hifi was switched on and soft music filled the room. "I didn't come here to talk about my mother," Micky said in a low tone. "Let's dance."
"It's Micky Meeks-and she's got a date with her," Midge grinned in admiration. "And it's not even noon!"
Jackie relaxed. She would have jumped a judge if she had to, but she wouldn't have liked explaining it later!
"Should we let Micky know we're here?" Midge wondered.
"Let's wait and see if they go upstairs," Jackie suggested. From the giggles and groans, she suspected it would be just a matter of minutes.
"What do you think, Velma?" Midge asked her girlfriend, who was pressed up against the door peering through the little slit.
"I think Micky's a pretty smooth operator," Velma giggled. "She's already unzipped the back of that girl's dress!"
"We'd better make our presence known," Jackie realized.
"Too late," Velma informed her. "There goes her slip!"
"Oh, Micky, you're such a bad girl!" they heard Micky's date exclaim happily.
"What's happening?" Jackie wondered.
"Do you want details or just the general picture?" Velma grinned back. Then Micky's date moaned, loudly, "Oh, Micky!" and the three chums knew they were going to be in that closet for a while.
Midge blushed hotly as she tried not to listen to the ardent lovemaking happening just feet away. Twenty uncomfortable minutes passed. "Think they'd notice if I had a cigarette?" Midge wondered.
Velma peeked out the door. "I don't think those two would notice an earthquake," she replied.
"I say we make a run for it," Jackie proposed after taking a look for herself. All she could see were two sets of feet dangling over the edge of the high-backed davenport. "Here's the plan. If we crawl out of here and stay low, I think we can get to the hallway."
"I'm game," Midge said. "I don't know about you two, but it's getting awfully hot in here!"
The three chums made sure to keep their heads down as they crawled past the sofa to the hallway and into the kitchen. They found the cellar door not a minute too soon, for just as it closed behind, them they heard a girl scamper into the kitchen.
"This isn't a cellar-this is a bomb shelter!" Velma gasped when they had tumbled down the narrow stairs and switched on the light. They looked around the utilitarian cement-floored room with its stainless steel miniaturized kitchen appliances, narrow cots and simple shelves loaded with canned goods, a battery-operated radio, walkie-talkies, the complete Reader's Digest Condensed Books series and board games.
"These walls are steel-reinforced concrete," Jackie reported. "This isn't a simple cellar converted into a bomb shelter; this is a feat of modern engineering. Look at the ceiling-it's also made of steel. The Meekses really are expecting an attack here in central Illinois!"
"The bomb they're detonating must be huge," Velma said in awe.
"You don't think-Judge Meeks wouldn't dare drop the bomb-would he?" Midge gasp incredulously.
"Not even Meeks could be that nefarious. Besides, I distinctly heard those thugs discussing dynamite," Jackie assured her.
"Maybe Myra just uses this as her private getaway," Velma suggested hopefully. "After all, here's a year's supply of her famous rose perfume and a five-gallon drum of cold cream. I guess what Cherry says is true. `A girl must always look her best and be prepared for the worst.' "
Midge picked up one of the peculiar-looking silver packages stacked on the shelves. "Not only will Myra look good, she'll eat well, too," she quipped, adding, "I didn't know they made freeze-dried Apple Betty."
Midge read the label aloud. "Contains sugar, bread crumbs, stewed apples, monotrigludimate, phosphorus mon-ogylserine, sodiacarbonate, tartaricerian, cellulosand and other preservatives. Expires August 1974. And look-there's meatloaf, tuna-noodle casserole, chili con came, clam chowder and an assortment of gelatin fruit salads. Serve straight from package." Midge ripped open the chili con came and took a big bite of the rust-colored bar. "Yuck," she said as she spit it out. "Who would eat this stuff?" she wanted to know.
Velma looked queerly at the package in Midge's hand. "Do you see what's stamped on the back? Property of NASA. Midge, this is astronaut food!" she cried.
"Where did Myra Meeks get experimental food meant for use in outer space?" Jackie wondered. "This stuff is strictly top-secret cuisine."
"And how can a government that can't make food taste any better than this put a man on the moon?" Midge grimaced.
"Ssh," Jackie warned her. "I hear footsteps up there. We'd better find that entrance before we're discovered. It may be cleverly disguised," she warned them. "Leave no stone unturned."
"I bet it's behind these shelves," Midge said, "or under these cots. Or behind that green metal cabinet."
As Midge and Jackie grunted and groaned, putting their well-developed muscles to work, Velma said, "Or maybe it's the door over there marked To Tunnel. "
She walked across the room and opened the door to reveal a steep set of stairs carved into rock. Small white lights hung from wires strung along the wall. "Yep, this is it," Velma grinned. "But, brrr," she shivered as a gust of cool air hit her. "It's cold down there."
"Maybe there's something in that cabinet we can put on," Midge said. She opened the door to find a pile of star
ched white laboratory coats.
"This is odd," Velma pointed out. "If this is Myra's personal bomb shelter, what is she doing with dozens of matching laboratory coats?"
"Maybe she likes to dress up like a scientist," Midge joked as she unfurled one and held it up to herself. Dr. Oskar Ottoman was embroidered in red script above the left breast pocket.
"Isn't Ottoman that rocket scientist who came here after the war?" Jackie remembered. She grabbed a coat. "Dr. Ernst Early. This name rings a bell, too."
"But what do the tunnels have to do with these scientists?" Midge wondered.
"Something very suspicious is going on down there! " Jackie cried.
"Let's disguise ourselves with these coats," Velma proposed. She picked one from the pile and slipped it over her summer frock. "I don't think I look right," she said worriedly as she fussed with her costume.
"Honey, don't belt it like that. It gives you too much of a figure," Midge pointed out. "If anyone's going to believe you're a guy, we'd better fix your hair, too." Midge took a can of pomade from her pocket and got to work. Velma reluctantly wiped off her eyeliner and lipstick.
Midge stepped back and surveyed her girlfriend. With her dark curly hair slicked off her winsome face and the baggy white coat hiding her voluptuous figure, Velma looked like a sweet-faced boy scientist. "You look pretty darn cute like that," Midge had to admit.
"But I have no shape," Velma flushed prettily.
"I know what's under there," Midge murmured as she grabbed the front of Velma's baggy coat, pulled her close and planted a big kiss on her lips. Midge then shrugged into her costume and placed her pack of cigarettes in the plastic pocket protector in the breast pocket of the lab coat. Midge checked Velma one last time and gasped when she realized whose name was on her girlfriend's coat.
"Dr. Fraud!"
"Is there nobody in this town we can trust?" Jackie cried as they raced through the door to the tunnel and started down the stairs.
