Chapter 11: Titular Developments

“Yes.  Yes.  Hmmm, I see.  And they haven’t—no?  Ah, OK.  Well, if there are any new developments, be sure to call me.  Yes.  Yes.  Oh, no—you’re welcome.  Goodbye.”

Frank hung up his phone and picked up his pen—from the Captains Endowment Association of the New York City Police (his father had friends in the department).  Clicking it open, he crossed out a name on a sheet of paper.  Then, picking up the phone, he started to dial another number.

The door to the room swung gently open.  “What are you doing?” Susan asked.

Frank glanced over at her.  “Calling the police departments in major cities around the state and seeing if they’re having problems with car thefts.  I’ve already spoken with Guthrie, Ponca City, Woodward, Perry, and Chickasha—they’re all having car theft problems.  In each one, it’s cars that were made in the last twenty years.”

Susan made a face.  “Where’s Woodward?”

“Three hours from here.  The last town of any size before you reach the panhandle, or the end of civilization, as Mr. Hightower likes to put it.”[1]

Susan nodded.  “Why don’t you call Blackwell and see if they’ve been having trouble?”

Frank gave his sister a funny look.  “Uh, Susan!  We found that out from the beginning.  That’s probably why Brittany disappeared in the first place—”

“I mean since then!” insisted Susan.  “They might’ve made some progress in the case that you haven’t heard about.”

“Oh, I see,” said Frank.  He checked the clock.  “I guess that can’t hurt.  I’ll give them a call.”

Picking up the phone, he dialed the number.  Four rings went by before anyone answered, but Frank scored mightily with the pickup, as Chief Morris answered the phone.  He was reluctant to talk to someone Frank’s age about the case at first, but when he found out that Frank knew Brittany’s pen pal, his attitude softened somewhat.

“I wish we could say there was something new, but there isn’t.  Outside of car robberies.  Those thieves must read our mind!  Every time we think we know where they’ll strike, they do something new!  Last week, they scoped out a house and waited for the owner to go to work, then showed up in a tow truck and made off with the car!  We found the tow truck, abandoned—there hasn’t been a sign of the car since.”

“Clever,” marveled Frank.  “What about Brittany?”

“No, she and the other girl are still missing—”

“Wait a second!” Frank’s ears perked up.  “The other girl?”

“Sure, there were two missing.  I thought Porter told you about them.”

“He only mentioned Brittany.  Who’s the other one?”

Even as Frank asked the question, though, a guess had popped into his head.  When Chief Morris told him the name, he pumped his fist excitedly.  That guess was confirmed, and now, another piece of the puzzle was falling into place.  After a couple more questions, he was bursting with excitement.

“Thanks for the help, Chief,” Frank said.  “Have a wonderful day!”

“You as well,” said Morris.  “Good luck!”

Getting up from his seat, Frank ran to the door.  “Nancy?  Nancy?  Hey, Nancy!”

“She’s at the library!” Susan said, poking her head out of the room.  “Find out anything important?”

“I’ll say!” Frank exclaimed.  “Listen to this!”

Louis popped out of his room, having heard the commotion.  He and Susan listened intently as their big brother filled them in on the details.  Then, the three waited impatiently for Nancy to get home.  She’d just left, and an hour and a half passed before she finally reappeared on the street, but hardly had she stepped on the front walk before Frank swung open the door.

“You’ll never guess what I found out…” he started, but his voice trailed off as he saw the grin in her sister’s face.  She was clearly excited about something as well.

“No, you’ll never guess what I found out!” she said.  “It’s about Stephanie!”

“Stephanie!  What’s the news?”

“Well…”

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The nice thing about living in the city was that many things were in walking distance from the Anderson residence.  One of these was the Norman Library, which could be reached in less than a half hour at a leisurely pace.  Norman was safe enough that no one bothered Nancy as she walked there alone, all set to pick up books.  Once she walked into the children’s section, though, she was alone no longer.

“Nancy!” called a familiar voice, and Ashley Dale came running over.

“Good to see you, Ashley!” Nancy said, giving a hug to little Ron, who’d also come running up.  “Here to get books?”

“Well, I didn’t exactly come here to do a chemistry experiment, if that’s what you mean.”  Ashley smiled.  “Same for you?”

“Yep,” Nancy answered.  “I just finished this fascinating murder mystery by Agatha Christie!  You’ll never guess who did it!”

“How can I, if I haven’t read the book?” said Ashley.

“Even if you did, you probably wouldn’t guess.  I thought he’d be out of bounds, but not in her stories.  It was the narrator!”

Ashley gasped.  “You mean—wait, was it one of those stories that centers around the criminal—”

“Yes, and no,” said Nancy.  “The way it’s set up, you think the person’s trying to help the detective solve the case.  He conveniently glosses over the actual murder with some vague statements when he commits it, then covers up evidence.  It seems rather like Dr. Watson narrating a Holmes case—until you get to the end, that is!”

“Goodness!” said Ashley.  “What’s it called?”

Nancy grinned.  “I can’t tell you that!” she said.  “That would spoil it for you!  You’ll just have to hope you stumble across it one of these days—”

“Nancy, Ashley!” exclaimed a librarian, walking over to join the two.

“Hello, Mrs. Cuthbert,” Nancy said.  The elderly librarian had been a staple in the Norman Central children’s section for—goodness knows how long.  Probably since the building opened in the early ‘60s.  Tall and slender, with curly-white hair and steel-framed glasses, she was a favorite of children at the library.  She knew all their names by heart—as well as when they’d kept a book past its due date.

“Did you come by yourself?” the librarian asked Ashley, “or is your family with you?”

“Well, Ron’s right here, and the others are…somewhere around.”  Ashley glanced around and soon spotted several of her siblings, but she didn’t bother to point them out.  That would’ve taken too long.

“Well, if you see Stephanie before I do, you tell her that she needs to get those books returned!  They’ve been overdue for three days now!”

Ashley’s face fell.  “Didn’t you hear?”

“Hear what?”

Nancy saved her friend the trouble by quickly explaining.  Instantly, a concerned look came over the librarian’s face.

“Oh, I had no idea!” she said.  “I’ll be praying that she turns up safe and sound!”

Ashley managed a wan smile.  “I appreciate it!”

Nancy, however, had an idea.  “Wait, you know that she has overdue books.  Would you happen to know which they are?”

“Certainly!” said the librarian.  “They’re Life of Thomas Edison by Jay Gibbons—”

“Hold on a second,” said Nancy, pulling a pen and paper out of her pocket.  “Okay, what were the books?”

“Life of Thomas Edison by Jay Gibbons, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: A Guide to Transportation by Jesse Orosco, and Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware by M.T. Anderson.

“How do you spell Orosco?” Nancy asked, furiously writing.  The librarian spelled it, having no need to repeat it—Nancy was determined to get these titles written down!

“Someone actually broke in our house and stole them the other day,” explained Ashley.  “Otherwise I’d return them.”

Mrs. Cuthbert looked shocked.  “Stolen library books!  Who’d steal a library book?”

“That’s what we’re wondering,” said Nancy, putting the cap back on the pen.  “We thought there might be a clue in one of them.  Are there any other copies in the library system?”

“I’ll check on that,” said Mrs. Cuthbert.  “If you’ll follow me over to the computer…”  She looked up the information, but her only reaction was a headshake.  “Those seem to have been our only copies of those titles.  Maybe that’s why they were stolen.”

Nodding, Nancy said.  “Thanks, Mrs. Cuthbert.  You’ve been very helpful.  Very helpful, indeed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 “So, what do you think?”  Nancy beamed as she finished her story.

“What do I think?” Frank asked.  “I think we’re off to Barnes & Noble!  Go get Mom; tell her to take us!  Louis, Susan!  Be ready in five minutes!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mrs. Anderson was available to drive her kids to the Barnes & Noble—seventeen minutes away, on the other side of town.  Navigating the traffic lights seemed like it would be the hardest part, but a greater obstacle awaited the Andersons at the store, where two of the books were unavailable.  The bookstore had a copy of Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware, but the other titles wouldn’t arrive for another week.  Mrs. Anderson placed an order for those, and Frank and Nancy flipped through the Jasper Dash book on the way home.  They found it very entertaining, but they concluded upon their return that the clue must be in one of the other two books.

“The others aren’t fiction,” Nancy pointed out.  “Everything in them is real.”

“Delaware’s real,” quipped Frank.               

“Not that Delaware,” Nancy said.  “Anyway, I’ll bet one of those books mentioned something that had to do with the case.  Probably the transportation one.  It must talk a lot about cars—maybe there was some information in there that would give us a lead on the car thieves.”

Frank’s eyes widened.  “That would make sense!” he said.  “It would explain why Stephanie disappeared.  After all, she didn’t know anything about the car robberies, aside from what Brittany told her.”  He sighed.  “I just wish we didn’t have to wait a week to get it.”

“I can tell you one thing about cars,” Mrs. Anderson said, as she pulled the Expedition back into the driveway.  “They’ve changed a lot since I started driving them.”

“You’ve told us,” grinned Frank.  “A lot of motors have fallen out of your first model.”  Mrs. Anderson’s original vehicle had been a Yugo.  It was a terrible car, but she’d met Mr. Anderson as a result of a breakdown.  They’d known each other ever s—well, I guess that’s obvious.

“I don’t think those thieves would be stealing a Yugo,” said Louis.  “What would be the point of that?”

“Well, anyone else who has a Yugo would need new parts—”

“But not many people have Yugos,” Nancy said, as they got out of the car.  “You know that as well as anybody.”

“That’s a good point,” said Frank.  “Come to think of it, not many people have Chrysler Three Hundreds either—particularly not from the 1970s.  In fact, none of the cars stolen so far have been that old.”

“The thieves might not be trying to get rid of that one,” Nancy said.  “If the thieves are in Oklahoma City, it’s probably just lying around, wherever they’re located.  We could search for it and find their hideout that way!”

“You’re forgetting garages, though,” Frank pointed out.  “Plus, Oklahoma City’s pretty big.  We couldn’t search through it all.”

“Oh, you’re right,” said Nancy.  “I should’ve thought of that.”

“Still, it’s a useful observation,” Frank said, as they went inside.  “There’s no harm in keeping our eyes open for the Chrysler.”

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[1] Deacon from the Andersons’ church, as you’d know if you’d read Book 2, Duet of Secrecy.