The Triple Hoax

by Carolyn G. Keene

  “What are we going to do?” Bess asked.

  No one spoke for a few minutes, then suddenly George remembered something. “Former neighbors of ours moved out here last year,” she announced. “They invited my family and friends to visit them any time. Suppose I phone them.”

  “Wonderful!” Bess said. “Do it right now.”

  George went into the hotel again and looked up her former neighbors’ name in the phone book. Mrs. Vetter was delighted to hear from her.

  “Where are you?” she asked.

  When she was told about the girls’ predicament, she said, “This is great! All of you come right over. We’d love to have you stay as long as you wish.”

  “Oh, thanks so much,” George said. “You’re a lifesaver.”

  When she walked out of the phone booth, her eyes were twinkling. Nancy and Bess, who had followed her into the lobby, were eager to hear what she had learned.

  “Everything is okay,” George reported. “The Vetters would love to have us visit.”

  Elated, the trio went outside again. They headed for their car which was parked a short distance from the hotel. It was not in sight!

  Nancy was puzzled. “I’m sure we left it right here!”

  The girls walked farther down the street. By the time they reached the next intersection, they knew that their car had been stolen!

  “Oh, no!” Bess wailed. “Do you realize all our luggage is gone, too?”

  13

  The Invisible Hand

  George was angry. she stomped her foot on the sidewalk and exclaimed, “Can you imagine our car being stolen right in front of a hotel full of detectives?”

  Bess was more upset over the loss of their baggage. “What are we going to wear?” she asked. “I don’t have enough money with me to buy a new wardrobe.”

  Nancy tried not to show her agitation. “Why don’t we do some sleuthing and see if we can find a clue to the thief?” she suggested.

  The girls walked back to the spot where they had parked the automobile. A light truck stood in its place now, but Nancy noted a large, rumpled piece of paper underneath. She pulled it out.

  “What’s that?” George asked, curious.

  Nancy spread it out. “A poster advertising the Hoaxters!” she exclaimed.

  The cousins leaned forward to read it. The poster gave the name of the theater and the performance schedule.

  “We’re in luck!” Nancy said. “I have a hunch that one of the Hoaxters took our car. Let’s go over to the theater immediately and find out!”

  “But how did they know we were in Los Angeles?” Bess asked. “And what car we were driving?”

  “They knew about the car because they planted the jade figurine in it,” Nancy declared. “I thought I saw Howie Barker leaving the garage when I picked the car up. But I can’t see how they could have possibly followed us all the way here.”

  “Perhaps they had one of their partners waiting at the border,” George suggested. “When he realized that we were not being detained, he followed us.”

  “You’re probably right,” Nancy admitted. “When we arrived and went into the hotel, he took our car!”

  Soon the girls reached the theater. A man stood at the front door. He was made up, with a gray wig, mustache, and beard. The girls did not recognize him.

  Nancy decided not to speak to him. Instead, she led the way through an alley that opened into a fenced-in parking lot. It was bordered by the street behind the theater and was almost filled to capacity with cars belonging to patrons of the evening performance.

  “Do you think ours might be here?” Bess asked tensely.

  “I hope so,” Nancy replied. “Let’s separate and check them all.”

  Each girl took a section of the parking lot and walked up and down the rows. Suddenly Nancy spotted their rented car parked near the fence! She hurried up to it, took the keys from her handbag, and opened the trunk. To her relief, the girls’ baggage was still there!

  As she slammed the trunk lid shut again, Bess and George joined her. From a distance they had seen her stop and open the luggage compartment.

  “Is everything safe?” Bess asked worriedly.

  Nancy smiled at her friend. “All your clothes are intact. And now we’d better get out of here as quickly as possible.”

  The girls piled into the car. It took some maneuvering on Nancy’s part to get away from the fence. When she finally drove through the gate into the street behind the theater, the gray-bearded man they had noticed earlier ran toward them.

  He yelled at the top of his lungs, “Stop thief! Stop thief!”

  George leaned out the window. “We didn’t steal this car!” she shouted. But they were already too far away for the man to hear her.

  Fortunately, there was little traffic on the back street and Nancy proceeded quickly. After a few blocks she noticed a policeman and stopped. She told him what had happened.

  The officer promised to inform headquarters about the incident. “You will be required to come in and sign a report,” he said. “Where are you staying?”

  “At the Vetters’ on Dale Drive,” Nancy said. “Can you tell us how to get there?”

  “Sure.”

  The policeman gave her directions, and twenty minutes later the girls pulled into the Vetters’ driveway. A gray-haired couple came out to greet them.

  “George, how are you!” Mrs. Vetter exclaimed, hugging her former neighbor. “And I remember your cousin Bess. She was at your house several times when I stopped by to see your mother.”

  George introduced Nancy, who was warmly welcomed by the friendly couple.

  “We’ve heard so much about your mystery solving,” Mr. Vetter said, “that I’m delighted to meet you at last. Now, if you girls will let me have the car key, I’ll take your luggage inside.”

  Mrs. Vetter showed the visitors to an attractive guest room and soon they were unpacking their clothes.

  “I think we should call home and tell everybody where we are,” Bess said.

  George yawned. “Do you realize what time it is? Eleven o’clock here. That means it’s two in the morning in River Heights. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”

  Mrs. Vetter had prepared a midnight snack. When the girls had finished unpacking they all sat around the dining room table to eat ham salad sandwiches and dainty chicken sandwiches. For dessert they had hot chocolate and tarts filled with plum jam.

  “Oh, this is good,” Bess declared. “We were so eager to get here that we skipped dinner.”

  George nodded. “I wasn’t even hungry until I saw the food. And now I’d like to go to bed. I’m exhausted.”

  “Go right ahead,” Mrs. Vetter said. “You can tell us all the news tomorrow.”

  Even though the girls were extremely tired, they awoke early the next morning. When they came downstairs, all of them realized that their hosts were not up yet.

  “This is a good time to call home,” Nancy declared. “I’ll start with my father.”

  Mr. Drew had not left for his office, and she told him what had happened since she had last spoken to him. She also gave him the Vetters’ address and phone number.

  “And what news do you have?” she asked. “Is everything all right at home?”

  “Fine,” Mr. Drew said. “I’ve heard from Señor Pedroa in Mexico City. He said the police tracked down Enzo Scorpio, the poison thief, but the man disappeared before they could arrest him.”

  “That’s too bad,” Nancy said.

  “Yes. And now Hannah would like to say hello to you,” her father added and handed the phone to the housekeeper.

  Hannah Gruen told Nancy she had received a call from the girls’ friends, Ned, Burt, and Dave. “They want to come to the West Coast and join you,” she reported.

  “Wonderful!” Nancy exclaimed. “Hold the line while I speak to Bess and George.”

  She quickly discussed the request with her friends, and both were eager to see the boys. Just then Mrs. Vetter walked into
the room. George asked her if she would mind having three more guests, and the woman smiled.

  “Of course not! The more the merrier!”

  “Thank you so much,” Nancy said, then relayed the invitation to Hannah.

  Later in the morning, the young detective called Senora Mendez in Mexico City. “What is the latest word on the kidnapping?” she asked.

  “It is not good,” the woman answered, her voice trembling. “I received another ransom note, telling me to put the money into a sack and deposit it in a certain trash container attached to a big eucalyptus tree outside of town.”

  “And you followed the instructions?” Nancy asked.

  “Yes, I did. The kidnappers warned me not to tell the police, but I asked that two of their detectives watch the place secretly, and grab whoever came to take the ransom money.”

  “Were they successful?” Nancy asked eagerly.

  “No. But the money is gone!”

  “You mean the ransom disappeared but the police failed to catch the man?”

  “Exactly. It seemed as if an invisible hand reached into the trash can and removed the sack. There was no trace of anyone coming or going.”

  Nancy was amazed to hear this. “Was the tree tall,” she asked, “or a low one with lots of branches and leaves?”

  “It was not too tall and spread out a good bit,” Mrs. Mendez replied. “It was bushy and full. Why do you ask?”

  “I think I know what happened,” Nancy said. “The thief might have hidden in the treetop before the police detectives took up their positions. When it was dark, he shinnied down, took the sack, and retreated into the branches again until the following day. After he saw the police check the trash can and drive away, he probably felt it was safe to come down.”

  “Oh, Nancy, I’m sure you’re right.”

  “Have you heard anything about Dolores?” the young detective asked.

  Señora Mendez began to cry. “No, we have not. There was to be a phone call after the money had been picked up to tell us where we could find Dolores. But neither I nor my daughter and her husband have been contacted. We’re frantic with worry!”

  “That’s dreadful and very unfair,” Nancy remarked. “As you know, Senora Mendez, I believe that Dolores was taken to Los Angeles. I will hunt for her here. Please don’t worry too much. Hold hopeful thoughts.”

  “I’ll try,” the woman replied, her voice still shaky. She begged the young sleuth to start work immediately. “And keep me informed about any clues you pick up. I will pray that you succeed.”

  When Bess, George, and the Vetters heard the report, they were aghast. All of them agreed that the kidnapper was a totally heartless person.

  Later in the morning, Nancy was summoned to police headquarters to make a formal charge against the thief who had stolen her rented car. When she returned to the Vetters, after dropping off the car at the designated address, George said, “Are they checking out the man who raced into the parking lot, yelling ‘Stop thief!’?”

  “Yes, they are,” Nancy replied. “But even though I described him as best I could, he was so made up that it will be hard to identify him. Too bad we didn’t recognize him by his voice.”

  Bess spoke up. “Well, I’m glad we didn’t. I don’t want to have anything to do with any kind of thief ... carnapper, childnapper or dognapper, you name it!”

  Nancy and George laughed. The subject was dropped for the time being, because the Vetters had invited some friends to their house to meet the girls. The party was scheduled for four o’clock and no one left until after nine. By then, the young sleuths had been so distracted by the conversation that they had almost forgotten why they had come to Los Angeles.

  “But first thing tomorrow morning,” Nancy said, “we must do some detective work.”

  That night everyone went to bed early. They had been asleep several hours, when suddenly all were awakened by the smoke alarm. It was beeping at a tremendous rate!

  The girls jumped out of bed, put on bathrobes and slippers, then dashed into the hall. Their hosts had already hurried downstairs, and the young detectives followed. The house was full of smoke, so they rushed outdoors.

  “Where’s the fire?” Bess asked. “I don’t see any flames.”

  “In the laundry room in the wing,” Mr. Vetter answered.

  He went to call the fire department, then picked up the garden hose. He played it through the windows of the laundry room, trying to extinguish the flames.

  “My husband thinks someone set the fire deliberately,” Mrs. Vetter declared.

  The girls looked at her, shocked. Was the perpetrator one of their enemies?

  14

  More Tricks

  It was impossible for the Vetters and their guests to go into the laundry room. The smoke was too thick and acrid. Firemen soon arrived and quickly extinguished the blaze. Luckily not much damage had been done to the washer and dryer, but the walls were covered with soot and the floor was full of foamy water.

  “This place is a mess,” George remarked. “Mr. and Mrs. Vetter, I’m terribly sorry. There is a good chance that this fire was set by enemies of Nancy, Bess, and me.”

  “What do you mean?” one of the firemen asked, amazed.

  George looked toward Nancy, as if requesting her to carry on. The young sleuth nodded and gave the firemen a brief sketch of the case on which they were working.

  “Hm,” one of them said. “It does look as if you have a point, miss. Men, let’s see what we can find.”

  After looking around carefully, they came upon a scorched can of inflammable fluid that had been hidden behind a hamper.

  “Here’s what was used to set the blaze,” a fire-man, who said his name was Scotty, told the Vetters and their guests. “I’ll report all you’ve told me to the chief. Would you care to give me the names of the people you suspect?”

  Mrs. Vetter interrupted. “Oh, Nancy, don’t do that! You may be harmed if those wicked men find out you’ve reported them.”

  Nancy conceded that the woman had a point. Furthermore, she did not have a single bit of evidence to prove her accusation.

  She said to Scotty, “I suppose I’d better not reveal any more at this time. I have no proof, only suspicions.”

  After the men had left, Mr. Vetter said he thought all of them should go back to bed. “We’ll talk more about it in the morning.”

  As he closed the outside door to the laundry room, he asked his wife if she had left the door unlocked on purpose.

  Mrs. Vetter shook her head. “I’m always very careful to lock it.”

  “Then whoever set the fire must have had a master key,” her husband remarked. “There is no evidence here that the lock was forced.”

  Nobody slept very soundly for the rest of the night. Everyone wondered if the smoke alarm would go off again, or if something else might happen to the house. By morning Nancy said she was convinced that the girls’ enemies had somehow tracked them down. But how?

  “In any case,” she said to Bess and George, “I think we should leave. It’s not fair of us to put the Vetters through any more frightening experiences.”

  “I agree,” Bess added.

  George said, “Let me talk to them. After all, they’re doing a good deed by giving us a place to stay while we’re trying to find the con men and their associates.”

  Before Nancy or Bess could comment, George had hurried out of the room. To their surprise she returned in a few minutes.

  “The Vetters won’t hear of our leaving,” she reported. “Both of them said they are enjoying this mystery, and besides,” George chuckled, “they’re looking forward to the boys’ visit.”

  “Then that settles it,” Bess said, giggling.

  When the young detectives arrived at the breakfast table, Nancy thanked their hosts for such a generous attitude. “You’re really good sports,” she said. “And I think the fire proves we girls are on the right track of little Dolores’s kidnappers.”

  Bess added, “We m
ust be getting so close to them that they’re trying to drive us out of Los Angeles.”

  “Well, they’re not going to succeed!” George announced vehemently.

  “I’d like to phone Dad,” Nancy put in. “Maybe he’s had news about the Maine hotel and the company that supposedly produces the Silk-O-Sheen fabric.”

  Mr. Drew reported that he had not been able to unearth anything. “The firms are probably fictitious, and any literature about them is phony, too,” he declared. “But I need more time to prove it.”

  Nancy brought him up to date on what had happened since she had last talked to him. “It seems to me you’re in great danger, Nancy,” he said in concern. “Perhaps you had better come home.”

  “Oh, Dad, you don’t mean that!” Nancy protested. “Besides, we’ll get help soon. Ned, Burt, and Dave are coming out here.”

  “I know. Mrs. Marvin told me. Dave phoned her to get your address.”

  “What!” Nancy exclaimed. “When?”

  “Yesterday morning.”

  “But I gave the boys our address myself. Dave didn’t have to call Mrs. Marvin—and you know, I’m beginning to wonder if he did!”

  “You mean it was an impostor who called?” Mr. Drew asked.

  “Yes. Maybe the same man who started the fire in the Vetters’ laundry room last night.”

  “But how would he know about Dave?”

  “When the Hoaxters took Bess’s handbag during the performance in New York, they probably found her picture of Dave with his name and address on it.”

  “Why don’t you phone Dave and find out if he spoke to Mrs. Marvin?” Mr. Drew suggested.

  “I’ll do that right now. And thanks for the info, Dad.”

  Nancy hung up and dialed Dave’s number. He answered promptly. When Nancy asked him if he had inquired about their address, he was amazed.

  “Of course I didn’t,” he said. “Why should I? I already knew where you’re staying.”

  “That’s what I figured,” Nancy replied. “But someone called Mrs. Marvin and soon afterwards a fire was set in the Vetters’ laundry room.”