Chapter 24: The Breakthrough...Too Late!

After updating Zach on their findings, Frank and his friends searched the rest of the area around the Subway.  The salvage yard behind it was abandoned, and they snuck under the fence to it—only to find the building unoccupied and bare.  An O’Reilly Auto Parts store was across the street, but there were no cars hidden in this building either.  Finally, the three were forced to conclude that the secret base wasn’t here.

“Well, there’s one more Subway,” Frank said, as they drove back onto Route 277.  “Looks like it should be just a few hundred feet ahead.”

“I guess it’d be in that shopping center on the left,” said Zach.  “Funny, I don’t see any building that looks like a Subway—”

“Wait a minute!” said Auburn.  “I see it—it’s not its own building!  It’s in the Walmart!”

“Oh, that explains it,” said Ashley.  Some Walmarts had their own restaurants in them—often McDonald’s.  This one had Subway.  The familiar yellow and green sign hung unobtrusively on the side of the building, under the much larger logo for the supercenter.

“This is kind of the edge of town,” Zach said, glancing about as he took a left onto Grand Avenue.  “Besides these shopping centers, there’s not a whole lot else around, except for trees and farms.  Nowhere you could hide cars.”

“Forget the farms and stuff,” Ashley noted.  “It’s Walmart!  There’s nothing around it except the parking lot.”

Frank swiveled around.  “Wait a minute!  Say that again, Ashley!”

“Huh?” Ashley looked surprised.  “What—”

“Say what you just said!” Frank told her.

“It’s Walmart,” Ashley repeated, confusedly.  “There’s nothing around but the parking lot…”

“Exactly,” said Frank.  “Look at that parking lot!  It’s full of cars!”

“Well, sure it is,” said Auburn.  “Walmart gets a lot of business pretty much all day—except overnight, and even then, there are still some cars there.”

“I know,” said Frank, “but if there’s always cars there, then no one would notice if a few happened to remain there a few days or something.  Plus, Walmart has an Auto Center.  If they needed to do any work on the cars, the garage would be the perfect place for it—”

Ashley realized what he was saying.  “You think the Walmart itself is the base?”

“It’d be a good cover,” said Frank.  “There’s nothing suspicious about Walmart.”

Auburn was skeptical.  “Why would they have referred to the base as being a Subway if it was really at Walmart?  Wouldn’t they have just called it a Walmart, then?”

Frank thought about it for a moment.  “Probably…unless they were joking!  Bob had obviously never been himself before—he might have gotten their meaning wrong.  The base could be around a Subway—at the Walmart that’s around Subway.”

Zach pulled into the parking lot.  “You might be right!” he said, intrigued.  “If they’re hiding the cars here—boy, is that clever!  How are we going to find out?”

“Well, there’s an easy way to test it,” said Frank.  “Let’s park here for a couple hours and see which cars go in and out.  At the end of that time, one of us will go through the lot and record the license numbers of all cars that have been here over that time.  Then, I’ll call Dad at the police station and find out from him if any of those were stolen.  As long as they’re not missing in Chickasha, they could be hidden in plain sight.”

“If the thieves were smart, they’d take the stolen plates off,” Auburn pointed out.

“That’s possible, too,” said Frank.  “If you see a lot of cars with no plate—on the back—write down their descriptions.  That’ll be pretty damaging as well.”

“So we’re staking out the parking lot?” said Zach.  “Sounds good to me.  Anywhere special you want me to park?”

“Towards the middle,” said Frank, “but not too close to the store.  Somewhere that we can spot most of the cars.  In fact, before we begin—” he pointed at a gas station across the road—“let’s call Nancy and tell her what we’re doing.  From there.  I don’t want anyone in Walmart to hear what’s going on.”

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The plan went off without a hitch.  Over the next two hours, the four sat in the car and kept an eye on the traffic patterns.  Early on, Ashley got out and wandered inside, grabbing a cart from behind the Auto Center and then walking inside to ask how much an oil change cost.  She came back reporting that she hadn’t seen any paint cans or new upholstery, but Frank wasn’t dissuaded.

“The Auto Center’s not open 24 hours,” he said.  “They probably do most of their work overnight.  If anyone asks about it, they can say that they’re doing a private rebuild, or a project for a friend.”

At the end of two hours, most of the cars in the parking lot were different from the ones which had been there before.  However, about fifteen hadn’t changed since.  The kids hopped out and wandered around the lot, checking the vehicle records.

“876 ABC,” he said, hopping back in the car.  “Sounds mighty suspicious.”

Zach laughed.  “That’s my car,” he said.  “I thought you were just checking others.”

“You can never be too careful,” Frank grinned smugly back at him.  “Find out anything, Auburn?”

“Six cars that were still here, all with license plates.  Oh, and you can cross off the green Sonata that was in your part of the parking lot.  It’s heading out that exit as we speak.”

“Check,” said Frank.  “Down to fourteen cars.  Ashley?”

“Four on my side,” she said.  “What now?”

Frank took the lists from them.  “We go back to that gas station,” he said.  “Then, I make a phone call.”

Because of all the traffic on Highway 81, it took about five minutes to cross the road.  Soon enough, though, Frank had gone inside.  He spent about ten minutes in there, the three waiting eagerly in the parking lot.

“There he comes now,” said Ashley.  “What a scheme that would be, if he’s right!”

“He looks disappointed,” Auburn suggested.  “Well, what’d you find out?”

Climbing back in the front seat, Frank shook his head.  “No luck, guys.  None of those cars were stolen.  Furthermore, the plates are all with the cars they’re registered for.  Looks like we hit a dead end.”

Zach shrugged.  “Well, the road to Chickasha doesn’t end here.  Maybe the cars are at a Subway in Lawton!  Want to try that next?”

“Might as well,” said Frank.  “First, though, let’s pick up Nancy.  I just called her to tell her we were coming.  We’d never hear the end of it if we forgot!”

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Hanging up the phone at the receptionist desk, Nancy thanked the librarian, then wandered back to the table she’d been reading at.  A moment later, she was up again, looking for something else to read.  In the time she’d been waiting, she’d read completely through The Hidden Staircase (book 2 in the Nancy Drew series) as well as The Pizza Mystery (book 33 in the Boxcar Children series).

That one was nice, she thought, as she put the book back on the shelf.  Not the most exciting ending, though.  I would have preferred a little more danger.  Suddenly, she laughed to herself.  To read about, of course!  Not to experience.  Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny sure had it easy.  Even if the author misspells Jessie’s name in Book 24.

She surveyed the shelf, looking for another title to read.  For whatever reason, another children’s title suddenly popped into her head.  Hmm, I wonder if they have Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware.  Imagine, flame pits in Delaware.  Whoever wrote that book certainly has a vivid imagination.  No wonder someone was trying to steal it—

Suddenly, Nancy thought of something.  She straightened from her pose and glanced around, then marked back to the reception desk.

“Yes, what can I help you with?” the friendly librarian asked.  “Another phone call?”

“Not this time,” Nancy said.  “I was wondering if you had either Life of Thomas Edison by Jay Gibbons or Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: A Guide to Transportation by Jesse Orosco checked in.”

“I can find out,” said the librarian, consulting her computer.  “Let’s see—we have no books by Jay Gibbons.  I’ll try Orosco—oh!”

Nancy couldn’t tell what oh meant.  “What?”

“It’s available!  Hold on a second!”  Pulling an index card out of her desk, the librarian quickly scribbled the call number down.  Handing it to the girl, she said, “It’s in those shelves over on your right!”

“Thanks!” said Nancy.  Heart pounding, she wandered over to the shelves.

It didn’t take her long to find the volume she sought.  Planes, Trains, and Automobiles had a bright red cover, with old-style gold lettering whimsically flowing up and down the spine.  By the chipped finish on the cover and the creases in the center, Nancy could tell this was a book that got a lot of use.  Eagerly, she pulled it off the shelf, then returned to her seat.

No one else was at the table as she sat down, opened the book, and found the table of contents.  It was divided into three parts—Planes (Part I), Trains (Part II), and Automobiles (Part III).  Each of these was further divided into chapters, all of whose names were included in the listings.  Most of the sections were about these specific objects, though at the end of each, there was usually a chapter or two about something that didn’t quite fall into any of these categories but was closely linked.  For example, there was a chapter on helicopters at the end of the plane section.

Looks fascinating, Nancy thought to herself, running her finger down the list.  I’ll bet Frank would enjoy—

Her hand stopped in the train section, as a word jumped out at her!  Two words, in fact!  She stared at the chapter title for a full minute, not believing what she was seeing.  Then, she flipped over to the one in question.  Getting there, she turned almost all the way to the back of it until she found what she was looking for.

Oh, my goodness! she thought to herself.  This must be why the book got stolen!

So entranced was she in her discovery, she didn’t notice the other library patron walking by—until, all at once, she felt a cold piece of metal at the back of her neck.

“So, you found it,” snarled a familiar voice.  “Looks like it’s time for you to disappear, as well.”