“This is Auburn
Reynolds,” Frank said, making the necessary introduction. “Auburn, this is Dick White. You two can become buddies later. For now, we’ve got to follow those crooks!”
“Are you sure that’s a
good idea?” Dick asked, as Frank and Auburn ran downstairs. “You heard what they said—”
“Yes, but those two were
pretty scared,” said Frank. “If they
hear someone following them, they’ll figure it’s The Shadow, and not
ourselves. I figure we’ll be able to
keep close enough behind that we can track them.”
“Even so, let’s be
careful when opening the door,” Auburn suggested. “Why don’t you have Dick do it? He’s the only one of us they know is in the
house.”
“Good idea,” said
Frank. “Be ready to jump out of the way
if lead starts flying.”
“Thanks for the cheery
reminder,” Dick said. Finding the catch
was tricky, as the door was well-camouflaged, but Dick had it open a minute
later. Sure enough, Hill and Dooley were
nowhere to be seen. Lights had come on,
though, and Dick and the others could see a long flight of stairs leading down
into a subterranean tunnel.
“Let’s go,” said
Frank. “All three of us.”
Cautiously, the trio
started down the steps. They soon found
themselves in a narrow hallway. No doors
were in view on it, but it was finished—the walls were painted white, and a
light-colored hardwood floor lay below their feet. Fluorescent lights ran the length of the
ceiling. The hall was perfectly
straight, and far ahead, another flight of stairs was visible.
“They must have gone up
there,” Frank realized. “Let’s see where
they are.”
Even as they ran, they
could hear a car starting up. Frank
quickly whipped out a walkie-talkie.
“Frank to Zach. Frank to Zach.”
“10-4,” came the
reply. “What’s up?”
“Did you see anyone run
out of the house?” Frank asked. “Or, did
you see any car take off?”
“Negative.”
“Alright…well, keep your
eyes open. More in a second.”
Frank broke into a
sprint—the others sped up as well. Only
until they got to the staircase, though, at which point Frank slowed to a
walk. Cautiously, the three crept up the
stairs, where they found—
“Oh, rats!” said
Frank. “They got away!”
They were standing in a
garage—but not the garage for the Detwiler residence. This one fronted on another street—from the
positioning, Frank assumed it to be the one on the next street over. Glumly, he pulled out his walkie-talkie.
“You didn’t see a car
come off the next street over, did you?”
There was a pause.
“Uh, maybe,” said
Zach. Frank heard muffled voices in the
background—then—“Yes, there was one—Nancy saw the headlights from it. She doesn’t know what it looked like,
though.”
“And now it’s gone?”
Frank asked.
“Afraid so. Was that—”
“It was…we’ve lost
them.” Frank smacked his forehead in
annoyance. “I should have planned for
that. Oh, well. We learned a lot, and I think we’re getting
close. Call the police, and tell them to
get here as soon as possible.”
“10-4,” said Zach. “Over and out.”
“Okay,” said Dick, as the
three started back to the Detwiler residence.
“Now, Frank, would you mind telling me just who Auburn Reynolds is?”
“While you’re at it,”
said Auburn, “could you fill me in on how you knew who I was? I’ve never even seen you before.”
“That’s simple,” said
Frank. “She solved one of the most
terrifying mysteries in all of Oklahoma this summer. Back when that Blackwell case broke, there
were a lot of news articles about it.
You couldn’t put a radio or TV on in the morning without hearing
something about the Purple Porcupine, and—”
“I guess I missed
something,” said Dick. “What Blackwell
case?”
Frank glanced at
Auburn. “Shall I tell him, or shall you? You solved it.”
Auburn smiled. “You go ahead. I’d like to hear your version of it.”
“Well, I hope it’s
correct,” said Frank. “Over the summer,
Dick, there was a slew of ‘kidnappings’ in Blackwell, Oklahoma. Children—for the most part—were disappearing
all over town. The only clue to their
whereabouts was a little purple porcupine sticker left at the scene of each
crime.”
“Hence the name of the
kidnapper,” said Dick. “Who was the
Purple Porcupine?”
“Her,” said Frank,
nodding at Auburn.
Dick’s eyes nearly bugged
out of his head. “Her? But Frank—you just told me she solved the
case!”
“She did solve it,” said
Frank, “but the kidnappings weren’t the main part of it. You see, Dick, there was this ‘Community Service’
club in town—the Friendship Club, or something like that—”
“Brotherhood Club,”
corrected Auburn.
“That’s right,” said
Frank. “The Brotherhood Club, and most
of the kids ten and up were in it. Its
leader was a guy named…uh…”
“Richards. Jack Richards,” Auburn spoke darkly.
“Right. Jack Richards. He went around telling all the parents that
the organization was designed to promote community involvement. The club would meet together once a week,
they’d do a few community projects, and none of the kids would ever complain
about it. Seemed like a great deal, and
Richards had almost every kid in town signed up for it.”
“That doesn’t sound so
bad—” started Dick, but Auburn interrupted him.
“It was HORRIBLE!!!” she
exclaimed. “In reality, Richards wasn’t
the least bit interested in community service.
He was a master criminal who got all the club members to do his dirty
work for him, out of threats. He told
them if they wouldn’t go along with his schemes, he’d kill a member of their
families. He even had detailed plots
laid out for each of the children involved.”
“Of course, the parents
had no idea,” continued Frank, “and the kids couldn’t tell them, because they
were afraid of what might happen if they did.
Even if one had dared to talk, no adult would have believed them because
of Richards’s reputation. He’d made
himself out to be a great guy, and there wasn’t a single adult that was even
the least bit suspicious.”
Dick’s jaw dropped as
Frank continued the story. “My
goodness,” he exclaimed. “There’s an
evil setup! How did they catch him?”
“That’s where Auburn
comes in,” explained Frank. “She wasn’t
in the club, and she managed to figure out what was going on from someone that
worked at a gas station—”
“Brittany McPherson,”
Auburn filled in, “a name I’d assume you know.”
“Oh, she was the one,” said Frank. “I figured you girls knew each other. Anyway, Auburn had never met Richards, so he
hadn’t fooled her. She figured out what
was going on, and she knew they’d have to get concrete evidence against Richards
somehow before he could be arrested. Of
course, that’d be hard since he wasn’t the one committing most of the crimes—”
“Most of what he’d done
had been threats,” Auburn explained, “and of course, talking’s not illegal.”
“So, to help get evidence
on him, Auburn arranged for the disappearances of several of the family members
Richards had threatened,” Frank explained.
“That way, Richards couldn’t hurt them, because he didn’t know where
they were. The kids whose relatives had
disappeared didn’t have to follow his orders anymore, because their siblings
were safe. Once she got enough to
disappear, it all fell apart, and Richards—well, I’ll just say he won’t be
committing crimes anymore.” He glanced
at Auburn. “Was that pretty much
correct?”
The Blackwell girl
nodded. “Totally! I can’t believe you remembered all that! It was a few months ago that it happened—”
“Well, my siblings and I
solve mysteries too,” explained Frank.
“Naturally, I was interested in hearing about another child
detective—especially so close by. Plus,
I seem to recall an interview in which you mentioned you liked old radio
shows—”
Auburn nodded
excitedly. “You’re right! I got the whole idea from—”
“The Green Hornet,” said Frank.
“I love listening to those shows myself.
They’ve got such neat stories.
It’s a great thing to do in your spare time. Though, there is one thing I noticed,” he
continued. “In the interview, I think it
said you listened to The Lone Ranger,
The Green Hornet, and Challenge of the Yukon—all the Striker
ones. Tonight, though, those clips you
played were from The Shadow.”
Auburn nodded. “Personally, I like The Green Hornet better, but he didn’t have a menacing laugh. Finding episodes that used those lines I
played tonight was easy. A lot of those
phrases are on each show—”
“Like ‘the weed of crime
bears bitter fruit,’” commented Frank.
“You sure got him going.”
“Wait—that was a radio
program we were hearing?” Dick said.
Auburn nodded. “I used a digital recorder to get those
lines—then, I played them one by one as appropriate.”
Dick looked
confused. “But the voice—it sounded like
it was coming from different parts of the room.
Don’t tell me you’re a ventriloquist.”
Auburn shook her head
vehemently. “No, but I had a bunch of
speakers set up all around the room. I
just set different ones to go off at different times, and that’s why the voice
seemed to be moving around.”
“Much better than
anything I could have come up with,” Frank said, admiringly.
Dick nodded. “The moment we heard the laugh, I thought,
‘Frank didn’t tell me he was planning this…’”
“He knew nothing about
it,” said Auburn. “Until, I guess, you
found me upstairs—”
Frank nodded. “Did you go in through the trash tube too?”
She nodded.
“And this wasn’t your
first time, right? Were you the one that
made the phone call?”
Auburn nodded again. “I heard them making the plans
yesterday. A few more were here then—I
think some of them have gotten arrested since.
Anyway, I wanted to warn you, but I had to wait until they weren’t
around. Then, of course, I had to find
your number. You wouldn’t believe how
many Andersons live in Norman. I must
have called five people before I finally got a hold of your sister. Then, I told her they were planning to kidnap
you—”
“You mean him,
specifically?” Dick asked. “Not the
others?”
“No, they were just
interested in him. Hill was afraid Frank
might’ve seen him shoot Bob that night at the car dealer.”
“Oh, he told me about
that,” Dick looked at his friend. “Only,
you made it sound like you didn’t get a good look at the gunman—”
“I didn’t,” Frank said,
“but I guess he didn’t know that.”
Looking straight at Auburn, Frank continued, “Of course, someone else
probably did see him—were you the other person in the room that night?”
Auburn nodded. “I was searching the office when I saw you
coming, so I hid behind the filing cabinets.
The funny thing is, I didn’t get a good look at Hill either. Not right away, that is. When your father and sister ran in the
building after you, I snuck around to the front, just in time to see him close
the door to the truck. That’s when I got
a look at his face.”
“You did?” said
Dick. “Why didn’t you tell the police,
then?”
“I’ll tell you why,
Dick,” Frank answered. “Officer Porter
didn’t tell me the whole story when I first called the Blackwell Police. There were two girls missing—Brittany and Auburn. When Chief Morris told me your name, then I
remembered the name of the one who solved that case.”
Auburn nodded. “This case actually started a lot like the
Blackwell one. It was a hot day, and I’d
wandered down to the Conoco to get something to drink. Brittany was working there, and we got to
talking.
“As you probably know by
now, her Toyota Camry had been stolen a few days before. Brittany was proud of that car—her parents
had bought it brand new for her. Toyotas
last a while, and she’d had visions of getting three hundred thousand miles out
of it. When she discovered it was
missing, she was devastated.
“Naturally, we got to
talking about the car. I hadn’t realized
this at the time, but Brittany was looking for it. Not just keeping her eyes open, but actually
investigating, like a detective. So far,
she hadn’t uncovered any trace of it, but she had learned that towns all across
Oklahoma were experiencing an increase in car thefts.
“‘I’ll bet it’s the same
gang,’ she told me. ‘They must have some
secret base somewhere, some place big enough to hide all those cars before they
dispose of them.’
“It was a logical idea,
and we started discussing just where they’d have enough space to hide all
those. All at once—have you ever been
the victim of perfect timing? You
know—you mention something, and all at once, there it is? Well, the two of us were glancing out the
window—and we saw a man picking the lock on a car next door!”
“You don’t say!” said
Frank. “Of all the cars in Blackwell!”
“I guess he didn’t
realize we were trying to find the thieves.
Brittany quickly put the ‘Closed’ sign up. Then, we slipped outside, where her other
car—that Chrysler Three Hundred you see out front—was parked. We got in and followed the stolen car around
the corner of a building, where it drove into the back of a North American
moving truck—”
“Moving truck?” said
Frank. “Sounds like the one that came by
Bob’s that night—only, that one was Atlas—”
“It might’ve been the
same one,” said Auburn. “I’ll tell you
why in a moment. Anyway, the door closed
automatically on the truck, which started moving as soon as the car was
in. The thieves must have had it
timed. It wasn’t long before they were
on the Interstate, and Brittany and I still hadn’t had a chance to call the
police!”
“Couldn’t you have used
her cellphone?” Dick asked.
“It was out of battery,”
said Auburn, “and she’d forgotten to bring the charger for it. We couldn’t stop, or we’d lose the truck, so
we followed it down to Oklahoma City.
There, we trailed it off the highway, until it came to an abandoned
warehouse in the southwest part of town.
A door closed after it when we drove inside, so Brittany parked and got
out. She left me with the car and told
me to get help if she didn’t come back.”
“Is that when she disappeared?”
Dick asked. Frank was shaking his head
even as Auburn answered.
“Not then,” said
Auburn. “Brittany snuck inside. She was there for about ten minutes, at the
end of which time, she came running out, carrying a license plate. Hopping in, she sped out of the parking lot,
just as the door opened and five other guys came running out. As we drove away, she explained that the
paint scheme on the truck could change. They
had some device that could make it different colors, and she saw them switch it
to Global Van Lines. They were getting
ready to move the car to another destination—their secret base.
“The ones who’d dropped
the car off left, and Brittany took the license plate off it—so she’d have
proof that she’d found the vehicle.
Then, though, the crew that was supposed to take it to the base showed
up. Hill was one of them. They saw her leave and followed us, but we
shook them, briefly.”
“‘I’ve got to drop this
plate off,’” Brittany told me. “‘Sooner
the better. Do you know anyone in Oklahoma
City we could leave it with?’
“I used to live in
Kansas, so I hadn’t been to OKC a whole lot.
However, my dad and I came once a couple months ago to buy some Kansas
City Royals cards at one of the baseball card shops downtown. The owner seemed nice enough, so I suggested
him. Brittany drove by there, parked,
and dropped the plate off. Then, when
she got back in the car, she started to write a letter. First, she made sure she had an envelope, and
she addressed that. Then, she started to
write the letter—”
“Only, she was
interrupted,” filled in Frank. “Did
Vince find you all?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so,”
Auburn said. “They chased us through the
downtown. Brittany tried to lose them,
but in the process, she turned into a dead-end alley. We were trapped, and she knew it, so she had
me hide in the trunk. So far, those men
had no idea I was there—they only knew about her.”
“So you were never
actually kidnapped?” said Frank. “Only
her?”
Auburn nodded. “There wasn’t anything I could do except hold
my breath and pray. One of them said
something about taking her to their secret base, and then, they started arguing
over what to do with the car. Initially,
I think they were planning to take it there as well, but they must have changed
their minds. A tow truck showed up later
and moved it to this house, where they put the covering on over it! I had to wait until midnight before I could
finally sneak out.”
“Why didn’t you go to the
police then?” Frank asked.
“If I’d done that,” noted
Auburn, “I’d have had to go straight back to Blackwell, and then I couldn’t
have helped much with the case. As it
was, I knew more about it than anyone else, except Brittany—and Stephanie later
on, I guess. I figured the letter would
give the first clue, and by the time it got delivered, I’d be able to tell the
police where the hideout was. Little did
I realize just how secretive they were about it.”
“You never found out?”
Frank asked.
“No, and I’ve searched
this house multiple times.” Auburn
smiled wryly. “That trash pipe’s an easy
way in, but there’s not a single reference to the base anywhere in the
place. I didn’t even know about the
Subway until you did—when Bob brought it up.
After I heard that, I searched the house again, but I couldn’t find a
single reference to a specific Subway—other than an occasional wrapper from one
in a trash can. There was never a
receipt with it, though.”
“Not everyone asks for a
receipt,” noted Dick. “Plus, they’d be a
lot more likely to shred the receipt than they’d be to shred the wrapper. Not that you couldn’t shred a wrapper, but—”
“You wouldn’t want
mustard in your shredder,” agreed Frank.
“Surely, you didn’t spend the whole time searching the house!”
“Oh, no!” said
Auburn. “First, I was going to go find
Stephanie and tell her what happened. I
found my way to the Amtrak station and took the train to Norman a couple days
later, only to find a police car by the time I got to her house. I hid in the bushes and listened…it didn’t
take me long to figure out what had happened.
Then, I took the train back up to Oklahoma City that night. The next day, I made it back to Hill’s house
and eavesdropped on some of his phone conversations. One of them was with Bob, and I recognized
the voice instantly—I’d heard the commercials before. I made my way down to his dealership, and
that’s where I was when you came in.”
“I see,” agreed
Frank. “Guess that gets us about caught
up.”
At this point, Auburn
started fidgeting. “I guess you’ll have
to turn me in, then?”
Frank thought about this
for a moment. “Tell you what. My dad’s a member of the Oklahoma City Police
Department. We’ll take you home, and
I’ll speak to him about it. We can
probably convince him to put you under house arrest. Then, you’ll be in our custody for the rest
of the case, which means you can keep working on the mystery along with
us. Does that sound good?”
Auburn was visibly
relieved. “Okay by me!” she said. “Anything that’ll let me stay in town. Plus, I’ll bet your house is nicer than the hotel
I’ve been staying in—”
“You got a hotel?!”
exclaimed Dick. “I thought they only let
people twenty-one and over check into those places!”
“That only applies to
ones in business,” said Auburn. “This
one was vacant. I’m getting kind of used
to that variety.”
“Well, we’ll give you an
air-conditioned/heated, running water, electricity-supplied room for the next few
days,” said Frank. “As long as it takes
us to solve the rest of the case.”
“Hopefully, that won’t be
much longer,” said Auburn. “I may not
know where the base is, but I have found out a few things…”
