Chapter 16: Have Car, Will Follow

That night, the Lawrences went for another drive, supposedly to see the lights by the beach.  In reality, they were out to avoid being overheard.

“Well, Renee wasn’t kidding,” said Drew.  “Mr. Hallett’s glass was poisoned.”

“I thought that was your beeper,” said Edward.

“I had to do something,” said Drew.  “It killed that beetle.”

“I wonder what it was,” said Carol.

“I don’t know,” said Drew, “but that’s not important.  What is important is that we have two very suspicious actors so far.”

“Hodgson and who else?” asked Renee.

“Bourdon,” said Drew.  “Don’t forget about him.  We know he’s a spy, on spy business.”

“That’s right,” said Carol.  “You had that run-in with his contact at the theater.”

“He would be my top suspect after that,” said Drew, “only we know Hodgson can walk.  Which brings us to the first thing we need to do: search that secret room.”

“You didn’t do that earlier?” asked Carol.

Drew shook his head.  “Hodgson was in the library most of the afternoon.  Even when he left, we didn’t want someone to catch us checking that room.  I suggest we wait until around one in the morning.”

Carol nodded.  “Sounds good.  Should we all check it?”

“Yes,” said Drew.  “Someone had better guard the hall, just in case someone gets up.”

“We’ll figure that out tonight,” said Carol.  “What else?”

“Next, and we’ll wait until tomorrow to do this, but I think we should set a trap for Bourdon and Hodgson.  We’ll tell both of them that Mr. Blaine’s finished his project and see which one tries to steal the plans.”

“Wait a minute,” said Edward.  “How’ll we know who tries to steal them?”

“Simple,” said Drew.  “Hodgson already seems to know where it is, especially since he knows about that secret room.  We’ll have someone hide in the room with the plans tomorrow night and see if anyone tries to steal them.  Bourdon, on the other hand, doesn’t even know what the plans are, so we’ll tell him Blaine hid them in the grand piano in the music room.  We’ll also leave fake ones in there.  If those get taken, we know Bourdon’s responsible.”

“I see,” said Carol.  “Sounds like a good plan.”

“What if neither gets taken?” asked Renee.

“Then we’re right back to square one,” said Drew.  “We’ll see what happens.  If we don’t find our culprit with this plan, it’ll at least thin out the field a bit.

“Another thing,” he continued.  “We’ll have Mr. Blaine let Bourdon and Hodgson know about the plans for us.  If we do it ourselves, it’ll make us look too suspicious.”

His siblings nodded.

“Good.  We might as well head back,” said Drew, pulling up to the edge of a pier.  “I’ll see if we can turn around.”

That wasn’t an option.  Crash!  A car rammed into the back of the Lawrences.

“Uh-oh,” said Carol. “Trouble!”

“Let’s get out!” said Drew.  Before the Lawrences could do anything, the second car’s motor revved.  It started down the pier, pushing the crippled Maserati in front of it.

“What’re they doing?” said Edward.  “There’s nothing down here.  This pier ends in five hundred—”

Oh, yes.  The pier ended in five hundred feet.  Beyond that was the ocean.  And unless things changed in the next few seconds, the Lawrences were about to go for a voyage!