The Death Valley Mystery: Chapter 22
TITLE: The Death Valley Mystery
GENRE: Young Adult Mystery Series
DISCLAIMER: These characters do not belong to me. They were created by the wonderful and talented Mr. Robert Arthur, may he rest in peace. I am writing my own story about them because they were such an integral part of my growing-up years and I love them a lot. This is purely a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any persons living or dead is completely coincidental. I do not profit from this venture, and no copyright infringement is intended.
RATING: G (anyone can read this)
FEEDBACK: I love it! It keeps me going.
SUMMARY: The boys travel to Death Valley and end up solving a nearly twenty-year-old family mystery.
Chapter 22: An Unexpected Ally
As Bob, Jupiter and Vanessa approached the front office, the sound of men’s voices drifted toward them. Jupiter held up his hand, signaling his friends to keep silent. Then, cautiously the three of them crept toward the doorway, listening intently.
“Chief, I’m so worried about my daughter,” Sam Kipley’s voice was heard, his tone heavy with anxiety. “I’m afraid those bandits killed her. If they did, I want them brought to justice. And I don’t care what happens to me!”
The young people stared at each other, their eyes wide. Mr. Kipley was willing to turn in his former friends, and even risk jail time himself, for Vanessa’s sake?
“That’s fine, Mr. Kipley,” Chief Robbins replied kindly. “Why don’t you tell me everything you know about them, and I’ll issue a warrant for the gang’s arrest right away.”
“They work on Mr. Hartwell’s ranch,” Mr. Kipley told him. “All of ‘em. I did too, until I overheard them one night plotting to do away with Kelly. So I took her up into the mountains, and we lived in a log cabin I built myself. I was sure no one would ever find us. But when I came home a few hours ago, our house was ransacked and Kelly was gone. I know it was the Thurwood gang. They must have found my little girl and killed her!” His voice broke with despair.
Vanessa dashed past Jupiter and out into the front entryway. “They didn’t kill me, Pa,” she exclaimed. “I’m right here!”
Sam Kipley stared at her, stunned. Then a relieved smile broke out over his face.
“Kelly-girl!” he whispered, enfolding her in a tight hug. “Thank God you’re safe! What happened to you?”
Vanessa fiercely returned his embrace, then turned to smile at Jupiter and Bob as they entered the room. But Sam Kipley stared at them in horror. “You again!” he gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s OK, Pa,” the girl assured him. “They’re my friends.”
Chief Robbins was studying her, his brows raised quizzically. “You mean to say you’re the Kelly Kipley everyone’s so afraid of? A pretty little girl like you? Preposterous!”
“She’s not Kelly Kipley anymore,” Jupiter broke in, grinning. “Chief, I’d like you to meet Vanessa Hartwell!”
“What!” the chief cried, astounded. “How can that be? Vanessa Hartwell has been dead for years!”
Jupiter shook his head. “Thanks to Mr. Kipley, she’s alive and well. He saved her life, Chief Robbins.”
“How do you know all this?” Sam Kipley demanded suspiciously.
Vanessa laughed merrily. “I told you, Pa. He’s a detective! And a very smart one, too. He’s the one who figured out my real identity, and where the deed was hidden. He also figured out that Uncle Lloyd was the one behind the whole murder and kidnapping racket.”
“I had lots of help from my two friends,” Jupiter said hastily. “We all work together in solving cases. None of us could do it without each other.”
“Wait a minute, young lady,” Chief Robbins interrupted with a bewildered frown. “What are you talking about? Lloyd Hartwell is one of the most respected citizens in this entire Valley. He’s my assistant police chief!”
“He’s been leading a double life for a long time,” Jupiter explained. “As Lloyd Hartwell, he was very dedicated and loyal to the police force, I’m sure. But once he returned home to his ranch, he became Mr. Thurwood, leader of a band of terrorists. Embittered by the loss of his beloved wife and son, he was determined to manipulate his brother into giving him the Hartwell fortune, by any means he could devise.”
“You mean that’s why the Thurwood gang has been raiding this Valley all these years?” the chief asked in astonishment.
“That’s right,” Kipley spoke up. “It all started, like the boy said, when we were ordered to terrorize Trevor Hartwell. So we masked our faces and raided his place at night, hoping our guns would scare him into giving Lloyd his home. But he didn’t scare so easily. Besides, he’d recognized his brother right away, even though he was disguised, and figured out what he was up to. So Lloyd ordered us to kill him and bring the little girl Vanessa back to the ranch with us.”
“Mrs. Polly, the housekeeper, said she saw four men ride away from the house when Trevor was shot,” Bob put in. “Who were they?”
“That was Mac, Lane, Duffy and Willie,” Sam Kipley told him. “Steve, the ranch foreman, and Mr. Hartwell stayed home that day to tend the ranch, and also to have an alibi in case anyone ever questioned them. I sneaked over to the treehouse the same day and captured Vanessa there, then took her up to the mountains to hide out until the law gave up searching for her. Then I brought her to live in the ranch bunkhouse with me.”
He paused, looking a bit sheepish. “I’ve never told anyone this before, but there was a special reason I volunteered to rear the little girl myself, and sort of adopt her as my own. You see…her mother, Ellie Peters, was my half-sister.”
“So you’re her uncle too!” Jupiter exclaimed in astonishment. Vanessa stared up at Sam Kipley in shocked delight.
The man nodded. “My sister and I were separated when we were still children, so I’d lost track of her for many years. I was only a year older than she was. My father left Mother right after I was born, and she wasted no time getting married again and giving birth to Ellie. But then, when I was eight years old, my real father decided to come back and claim custody of me. So I had to go live with him in Fresno while Ellie stayed with our mother and her own father. Sadly, I never saw her again.”
“How did you learn about the Hartwells?” Bob asked curiously.
“As soon as I graduated from the local college at age twenty, I left my dad and came back here,” Sam Kipley replied. “I went to the courthouse and asked where the Peters family lived. One of the lawyers, a Mr. Keegan, told me that my mother and her husband had moved away, but that Ellie had stayed behind and married his client, Trevor Hartwell. He also gave me the terrible news that my sister had died just a few months earlier. I asked if Mr. Hartwell might need someone to work for him, hoping I could meet and get acquainted with my brother-in-law. Mr. Keegan said he didn’t know if Trevor had any need for an employee, but that his younger brother Lloyd was looking for a ranch hand. Someone experienced with horses and cattle. Fortunately, my father raised me on a farm near Fresno, so I knew I had the qualifications. I applied and immediately got the job.” He grimaced. “Little did I know I’d get tangled up in a vicious family feud.”
“And you never told Uncle Lloyd you were related to me?” Vanessa shook her head in amazement. “That’s incredible, Pa. How did you manage to keep it a secret for so long?”
“I knew if Lloyd found out I was your relative, he would’ve tried to get rid of me too,” Sam told her. “He couldn’t afford having any so-called traitors working for him. So I kept quiet, and went along with him to see what he’d do. When he told us he planned to kidnap you, I quickly volunteered to do it, since I figured the other men might hurt you.” He smiled affectionately at the girl beside him. “I knew you were Ellie’s daughter the minute I saw you. You looked so much like she did when she was your age! That’s why, when Lloyd told me your name had to be changed, I decided to call you Kelly. It was the closest I could think of to your mother’s name.”
“Ellie,” Vanessa whispered reverently. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re my mom's brother! I’ve always wanted to know more about her.”
Mr. Kipley smiled. “Well, I have a lot of memories of the two of us as children. I’ll tell you all of them.”
“In the meantime, chief, could you get some of your troops out to the Hartwell ranch right away?” Jupiter requested. “The bandits know we’ll report them, so they might try to escape into the mountains or someplace else.”
“Oh, yes.” The chief nodded. “Most of my officers are still at the Hartwell mansion, overseeing the hunt. I’ll page Officer Evans right now and tell him to send a group of armed police out to Lloyd’s ranch immediately. Then I have a very important phone call to make!” He winked conspiratorially at the group with this last cryptic statement, then pushed through the swinging door and made his way back the hallway toward his office.
“OK, Pete,” they heard him say. “You may go join your friends now. Lloyd won’t be going anywhere.”
“Thanks, Chief,” the Second Investigator said gratefully. He hurried out to the front office, placing Vanessa’s pistol on Chief Robbins’ desk with an enormous sigh of relief.
“Boy, Jupe, you always give me the hard jobs, don’t you?” he grumbled. “That man didn’t shut up once the whole time I was in there guarding him! He kept yakking on and on about how all his plans would have worked so beautifully if we hadn’t come along.”
“Well, he’s right about that,” Sam Kipley said emphatically. He put an arm around Vanessa’s shoulders and smiled at the three boys. “I hope you’ll forgive me for the unpleasant reception I gave you the first time we met. But I was so afraid Hartwell would find us, knowing what he would do to Kelly… I mean, Vanessa, and to me for betraying him. I was sure that every stranger in town was a detective Lloyd hired to track us down. That’s why Vanessa captured you when she saw you hiking up the mountainside. We were afraid that maybe you were working for him, so we wanted to see if we could bully you into telling us what he was planning.”
“Well, after we met you, he did ask me to crawl into the canyon and see if anyone lived back there,” Bob spoke up. “He said he had a feeling it was your hideout. But Jupe told me to pretend nothing was there, since we had to have Vanessa available when we searched for the deed. We had to test her, to see if she really was the Hartwell heiress like she thought she was.”
“I had secretly asked Pete to help me find the deed,” the girl confessed. “I was just as afraid of you as I was those other men, Pa. I had no idea why you took me away from the ranch. So when I read in the paper about the hidden deed hunt, I had to grab that opportunity to get away from the Valley and start a new life. Even though I couldn’t be sure who I really was. But these boys not only found the deed for me, they also proved that it was rightfully mine all along. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank them enough.”
“I’m very grateful for everything you’ve done for her too,” Sam Kipley addressed the boys. “If it hadn’t been for you, Lloyd would have succeeded in cheating Vanessa out of her rightful inheritance. But I guess you heard your share of that already, young man!” he added teasingly to Pete. The others laughed as Pete rolled his eyes and groaned at the recollection of Lloyd Hartwell’s endless complaints.
At that moment Chief Robbins returned from locking his former assistant safely away in one of the jail cells. He limped over to the front desk, giving Vanessa a wide smile. “I’ve taken the liberty of inviting one of your oldest friends to come here,” he told the girl. He nodded toward the front door, which was slowly edging opened. A small silver-haired woman entered, looking around timidly. “Meet Mrs. Abigail Polly, your nanny!” the chief dramatically announced.
Vanessa stared in disbelief. “Gigi?” she whispered.
Mrs. Polly stared back at the girl, her own eyes wide with shock. Then a choking sob escaped her throat, and she held out shaking arms. “Vanessa! My baby!”
The Three Investigators looked at each other in surprise. How did Mrs. Polly recognize the girl immediately, even after twelve years of separation?
“Of course,” Jupiter recalled. “She bears such a close resemblance to her mother.”
“I wish we could have brought Vanessa to Mrs. Polly before,” Bob said regretfully. “It would have saved us a lot of time and effort.”
Jupiter smiled, watching as Vanessa hurried over to embrace her former nanny. “Oh well, I guess that doesn’t matter now, does it? The important thing is we’ve found the missing heiress and reunited her with her family. What’s left of it, anyway.”
Pete shook his head. “What a shame her father’s brother turned out to be a criminal. I would never have believed it of him.”
At the same moment, they heard Mrs. Polly exclaiming, “Where have you been all this time, child? I was so worried - I had no idea what happened to you!”
“Oh, it’s such a terribly long story,” Vanessa sighed. “But I’ll tell you everything, I promise. Right now…” She turned to face the others. “Right now there’s something I’ve got to do. Someplace very special I have to visit.” Her gaze sought out the handsome Second Investigator. “Pete, will you be my escort?”
Bob and Jupiter looked at their friend, their eyes widening with exaggerated glee.
Pete ignored their playful smirks and smiled back at Vanessa. “Sure, I’d be glad to,” he graciously agreed.
“Well, after you young people come back, I want everyone over to my house for lunch,” Chief Robbins boomed in his cheery voice. “You all have a lot of explaining to do! Bring your father along,” he addressed Bob. “I’m sure he’ll want to hear everything his son has been up to for the last few days.”
“I’m sure he will too,” Bob said wryly. All three of the Investigators’ parents and guardians often became very upset when they learned of the danger their boys constantly found themselves embroiled in. Bob hoped that his father would remain calm this time, though. After all, they had come through this adventure safely and in one piece.
---
Vanessa Hartwell stood in the Wilderville Cemetery, studying the small white tombstones in front of her. Inscribed in clear-cut letters, the first epitaph read:
Eleanor Peters Hartwell
1967 - 1976
Beloved Wife and Mother
Reverently, Vanessa laid the colorful bouquet she had gathered from a field in front of the headstone. Then she slowly moved to the one next to it. This one read:
Trevor Allen Hartwell
1967 - 1980
Beloved Father and Townsman
The girl knelt in front of her father’s grave, bowing her head. Hot tears blurred her vision of the tombstone as faint images of a laughing, loving man rose in her memory. For the first time, she fully comprehended the enormous sacrifice her father had made for her. He had been willing to do anything, even risk very his life, in order to ensure that justice prevailed and that his daughter receive the complete inheritance that was rightfully hers.
“Goodbye, Daddy,” she whispered. “Thank you so much… for everything.”
GENRE: Young Adult Mystery Series
DISCLAIMER: These characters do not belong to me. They were created by the wonderful and talented Mr. Robert Arthur, may he rest in peace. I am writing my own story about them because they were such an integral part of my growing-up years and I love them a lot. This is purely a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any persons living or dead is completely coincidental. I do not profit from this venture, and no copyright infringement is intended.
RATING: G (anyone can read this)
FEEDBACK: I love it! It keeps me going.
SUMMARY: The boys travel to Death Valley and end up solving a nearly twenty-year-old family mystery.
Chapter 22: An Unexpected Ally
As Bob, Jupiter and Vanessa approached the front office, the sound of men’s voices drifted toward them. Jupiter held up his hand, signaling his friends to keep silent. Then, cautiously the three of them crept toward the doorway, listening intently.
“Chief, I’m so worried about my daughter,” Sam Kipley’s voice was heard, his tone heavy with anxiety. “I’m afraid those bandits killed her. If they did, I want them brought to justice. And I don’t care what happens to me!”
The young people stared at each other, their eyes wide. Mr. Kipley was willing to turn in his former friends, and even risk jail time himself, for Vanessa’s sake?
“That’s fine, Mr. Kipley,” Chief Robbins replied kindly. “Why don’t you tell me everything you know about them, and I’ll issue a warrant for the gang’s arrest right away.”
“They work on Mr. Hartwell’s ranch,” Mr. Kipley told him. “All of ‘em. I did too, until I overheard them one night plotting to do away with Kelly. So I took her up into the mountains, and we lived in a log cabin I built myself. I was sure no one would ever find us. But when I came home a few hours ago, our house was ransacked and Kelly was gone. I know it was the Thurwood gang. They must have found my little girl and killed her!” His voice broke with despair.
Vanessa dashed past Jupiter and out into the front entryway. “They didn’t kill me, Pa,” she exclaimed. “I’m right here!”
Sam Kipley stared at her, stunned. Then a relieved smile broke out over his face.
“Kelly-girl!” he whispered, enfolding her in a tight hug. “Thank God you’re safe! What happened to you?”
Vanessa fiercely returned his embrace, then turned to smile at Jupiter and Bob as they entered the room. But Sam Kipley stared at them in horror. “You again!” he gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s OK, Pa,” the girl assured him. “They’re my friends.”
Chief Robbins was studying her, his brows raised quizzically. “You mean to say you’re the Kelly Kipley everyone’s so afraid of? A pretty little girl like you? Preposterous!”
“She’s not Kelly Kipley anymore,” Jupiter broke in, grinning. “Chief, I’d like you to meet Vanessa Hartwell!”
“What!” the chief cried, astounded. “How can that be? Vanessa Hartwell has been dead for years!”
Jupiter shook his head. “Thanks to Mr. Kipley, she’s alive and well. He saved her life, Chief Robbins.”
“How do you know all this?” Sam Kipley demanded suspiciously.
Vanessa laughed merrily. “I told you, Pa. He’s a detective! And a very smart one, too. He’s the one who figured out my real identity, and where the deed was hidden. He also figured out that Uncle Lloyd was the one behind the whole murder and kidnapping racket.”
“I had lots of help from my two friends,” Jupiter said hastily. “We all work together in solving cases. None of us could do it without each other.”
“Wait a minute, young lady,” Chief Robbins interrupted with a bewildered frown. “What are you talking about? Lloyd Hartwell is one of the most respected citizens in this entire Valley. He’s my assistant police chief!”
“He’s been leading a double life for a long time,” Jupiter explained. “As Lloyd Hartwell, he was very dedicated and loyal to the police force, I’m sure. But once he returned home to his ranch, he became Mr. Thurwood, leader of a band of terrorists. Embittered by the loss of his beloved wife and son, he was determined to manipulate his brother into giving him the Hartwell fortune, by any means he could devise.”
“You mean that’s why the Thurwood gang has been raiding this Valley all these years?” the chief asked in astonishment.
“That’s right,” Kipley spoke up. “It all started, like the boy said, when we were ordered to terrorize Trevor Hartwell. So we masked our faces and raided his place at night, hoping our guns would scare him into giving Lloyd his home. But he didn’t scare so easily. Besides, he’d recognized his brother right away, even though he was disguised, and figured out what he was up to. So Lloyd ordered us to kill him and bring the little girl Vanessa back to the ranch with us.”
“Mrs. Polly, the housekeeper, said she saw four men ride away from the house when Trevor was shot,” Bob put in. “Who were they?”
“That was Mac, Lane, Duffy and Willie,” Sam Kipley told him. “Steve, the ranch foreman, and Mr. Hartwell stayed home that day to tend the ranch, and also to have an alibi in case anyone ever questioned them. I sneaked over to the treehouse the same day and captured Vanessa there, then took her up to the mountains to hide out until the law gave up searching for her. Then I brought her to live in the ranch bunkhouse with me.”
He paused, looking a bit sheepish. “I’ve never told anyone this before, but there was a special reason I volunteered to rear the little girl myself, and sort of adopt her as my own. You see…her mother, Ellie Peters, was my half-sister.”
“So you’re her uncle too!” Jupiter exclaimed in astonishment. Vanessa stared up at Sam Kipley in shocked delight.
The man nodded. “My sister and I were separated when we were still children, so I’d lost track of her for many years. I was only a year older than she was. My father left Mother right after I was born, and she wasted no time getting married again and giving birth to Ellie. But then, when I was eight years old, my real father decided to come back and claim custody of me. So I had to go live with him in Fresno while Ellie stayed with our mother and her own father. Sadly, I never saw her again.”
“How did you learn about the Hartwells?” Bob asked curiously.
“As soon as I graduated from the local college at age twenty, I left my dad and came back here,” Sam Kipley replied. “I went to the courthouse and asked where the Peters family lived. One of the lawyers, a Mr. Keegan, told me that my mother and her husband had moved away, but that Ellie had stayed behind and married his client, Trevor Hartwell. He also gave me the terrible news that my sister had died just a few months earlier. I asked if Mr. Hartwell might need someone to work for him, hoping I could meet and get acquainted with my brother-in-law. Mr. Keegan said he didn’t know if Trevor had any need for an employee, but that his younger brother Lloyd was looking for a ranch hand. Someone experienced with horses and cattle. Fortunately, my father raised me on a farm near Fresno, so I knew I had the qualifications. I applied and immediately got the job.” He grimaced. “Little did I know I’d get tangled up in a vicious family feud.”
“And you never told Uncle Lloyd you were related to me?” Vanessa shook her head in amazement. “That’s incredible, Pa. How did you manage to keep it a secret for so long?”
“I knew if Lloyd found out I was your relative, he would’ve tried to get rid of me too,” Sam told her. “He couldn’t afford having any so-called traitors working for him. So I kept quiet, and went along with him to see what he’d do. When he told us he planned to kidnap you, I quickly volunteered to do it, since I figured the other men might hurt you.” He smiled affectionately at the girl beside him. “I knew you were Ellie’s daughter the minute I saw you. You looked so much like she did when she was your age! That’s why, when Lloyd told me your name had to be changed, I decided to call you Kelly. It was the closest I could think of to your mother’s name.”
“Ellie,” Vanessa whispered reverently. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re my mom's brother! I’ve always wanted to know more about her.”
Mr. Kipley smiled. “Well, I have a lot of memories of the two of us as children. I’ll tell you all of them.”
“In the meantime, chief, could you get some of your troops out to the Hartwell ranch right away?” Jupiter requested. “The bandits know we’ll report them, so they might try to escape into the mountains or someplace else.”
“Oh, yes.” The chief nodded. “Most of my officers are still at the Hartwell mansion, overseeing the hunt. I’ll page Officer Evans right now and tell him to send a group of armed police out to Lloyd’s ranch immediately. Then I have a very important phone call to make!” He winked conspiratorially at the group with this last cryptic statement, then pushed through the swinging door and made his way back the hallway toward his office.
“OK, Pete,” they heard him say. “You may go join your friends now. Lloyd won’t be going anywhere.”
“Thanks, Chief,” the Second Investigator said gratefully. He hurried out to the front office, placing Vanessa’s pistol on Chief Robbins’ desk with an enormous sigh of relief.
“Boy, Jupe, you always give me the hard jobs, don’t you?” he grumbled. “That man didn’t shut up once the whole time I was in there guarding him! He kept yakking on and on about how all his plans would have worked so beautifully if we hadn’t come along.”
“Well, he’s right about that,” Sam Kipley said emphatically. He put an arm around Vanessa’s shoulders and smiled at the three boys. “I hope you’ll forgive me for the unpleasant reception I gave you the first time we met. But I was so afraid Hartwell would find us, knowing what he would do to Kelly… I mean, Vanessa, and to me for betraying him. I was sure that every stranger in town was a detective Lloyd hired to track us down. That’s why Vanessa captured you when she saw you hiking up the mountainside. We were afraid that maybe you were working for him, so we wanted to see if we could bully you into telling us what he was planning.”
“Well, after we met you, he did ask me to crawl into the canyon and see if anyone lived back there,” Bob spoke up. “He said he had a feeling it was your hideout. But Jupe told me to pretend nothing was there, since we had to have Vanessa available when we searched for the deed. We had to test her, to see if she really was the Hartwell heiress like she thought she was.”
“I had secretly asked Pete to help me find the deed,” the girl confessed. “I was just as afraid of you as I was those other men, Pa. I had no idea why you took me away from the ranch. So when I read in the paper about the hidden deed hunt, I had to grab that opportunity to get away from the Valley and start a new life. Even though I couldn’t be sure who I really was. But these boys not only found the deed for me, they also proved that it was rightfully mine all along. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank them enough.”
“I’m very grateful for everything you’ve done for her too,” Sam Kipley addressed the boys. “If it hadn’t been for you, Lloyd would have succeeded in cheating Vanessa out of her rightful inheritance. But I guess you heard your share of that already, young man!” he added teasingly to Pete. The others laughed as Pete rolled his eyes and groaned at the recollection of Lloyd Hartwell’s endless complaints.
At that moment Chief Robbins returned from locking his former assistant safely away in one of the jail cells. He limped over to the front desk, giving Vanessa a wide smile. “I’ve taken the liberty of inviting one of your oldest friends to come here,” he told the girl. He nodded toward the front door, which was slowly edging opened. A small silver-haired woman entered, looking around timidly. “Meet Mrs. Abigail Polly, your nanny!” the chief dramatically announced.
Vanessa stared in disbelief. “Gigi?” she whispered.
Mrs. Polly stared back at the girl, her own eyes wide with shock. Then a choking sob escaped her throat, and she held out shaking arms. “Vanessa! My baby!”
The Three Investigators looked at each other in surprise. How did Mrs. Polly recognize the girl immediately, even after twelve years of separation?
“Of course,” Jupiter recalled. “She bears such a close resemblance to her mother.”
“I wish we could have brought Vanessa to Mrs. Polly before,” Bob said regretfully. “It would have saved us a lot of time and effort.”
Jupiter smiled, watching as Vanessa hurried over to embrace her former nanny. “Oh well, I guess that doesn’t matter now, does it? The important thing is we’ve found the missing heiress and reunited her with her family. What’s left of it, anyway.”
Pete shook his head. “What a shame her father’s brother turned out to be a criminal. I would never have believed it of him.”
At the same moment, they heard Mrs. Polly exclaiming, “Where have you been all this time, child? I was so worried - I had no idea what happened to you!”
“Oh, it’s such a terribly long story,” Vanessa sighed. “But I’ll tell you everything, I promise. Right now…” She turned to face the others. “Right now there’s something I’ve got to do. Someplace very special I have to visit.” Her gaze sought out the handsome Second Investigator. “Pete, will you be my escort?”
Bob and Jupiter looked at their friend, their eyes widening with exaggerated glee.
Pete ignored their playful smirks and smiled back at Vanessa. “Sure, I’d be glad to,” he graciously agreed.
“Well, after you young people come back, I want everyone over to my house for lunch,” Chief Robbins boomed in his cheery voice. “You all have a lot of explaining to do! Bring your father along,” he addressed Bob. “I’m sure he’ll want to hear everything his son has been up to for the last few days.”
“I’m sure he will too,” Bob said wryly. All three of the Investigators’ parents and guardians often became very upset when they learned of the danger their boys constantly found themselves embroiled in. Bob hoped that his father would remain calm this time, though. After all, they had come through this adventure safely and in one piece.
---
Vanessa Hartwell stood in the Wilderville Cemetery, studying the small white tombstones in front of her. Inscribed in clear-cut letters, the first epitaph read:
Eleanor Peters Hartwell
1967 - 1976
Beloved Wife and Mother
Reverently, Vanessa laid the colorful bouquet she had gathered from a field in front of the headstone. Then she slowly moved to the one next to it. This one read:
Trevor Allen Hartwell
1967 - 1980
Beloved Father and Townsman
The girl knelt in front of her father’s grave, bowing her head. Hot tears blurred her vision of the tombstone as faint images of a laughing, loving man rose in her memory. For the first time, she fully comprehended the enormous sacrifice her father had made for her. He had been willing to do anything, even risk very his life, in order to ensure that justice prevailed and that his daughter receive the complete inheritance that was rightfully hers.
“Goodbye, Daddy,” she whispered. “Thank you so much… for everything.”