The Mystery of the Missing Heiress (9 page)

“Have you had any report at all from the inquiries that are being made about you?” Juliana asked, seating herself on a wicker seat near Janie. “It seems so strange....”

“Yes, doesn’t it?” Janie’s eyes saddened. “There hasn’t been a word from the Missing Persons Bureau. I guess nobody has lost a girl like me,” she added wistfully.

“Losers weepers, finders keepers,” Trixie chanted and put her arm around Janie’s shoulder. “We’ve
found
something, haven’t we, Honey? A friend.” Janie smiled. Color rushed to her cheeks. She put her hand up to clasp Trixie’s.

“I hope I may be your friend, too,” Juliana said. “Is it true, Janie, that you don’t remember one thing that happened at the time of your accident?” Janie shook her head. Sadness had returned to her lovely blue eyes.

Honey, sitting at Juliana’s side on the wicker seat, whispered low, “The doctor thinks it is better not to talk too much about the accident.”

Juliana must not have heard Honey’s whisper, for she went on probing. “Were you walking along the road and struck by an automobile?”

“I don’t... just don’t... remember,” Janie answered.

“Do you try to remember? It was an automobile that struck you, wasn’t it? It almost had to be.”

Janie put her hand to her head and winced. “It hurts to try to remember, but I have to do it.”

“You don’t have to try at all, Janie,” Trixie said calmly. “The doctor says it will all come rushing back to you at once, and trying hard is the worst thing you can do. So you see, Juliana, we’d better not ask questions. I think we’d better be going now.”

Juliana didn’t have anything more to say until they were out of the hospital and Jim was driving them back home.

Then she said reprovingly, “You should have told me the doctor said not to question her, Trixie. Then you wouldn’t have had to scold me in front of Janie.”

Trixie was immediately repentant. “I didn’t mean it to sound that way. I was feeling so sorry for Janie that I just didn’t stop to think what it might sound like to anyone else.”

“I
did
whisper to you not to question Janie,” Honey reminded Juliana. “I guess you didn’t hear me.”

“What’s all the discussion about?” Jim asked. “Has the girl remembered who she is?”

“No, she hasn’t,” Juliana said, “and I guess I committed a major crime...

Embarrassed, Trixie reassured her. “It was only natural for you to try to help her remember, Juliana; It was our fault for not telling you what the doctor said. We should have made sure you heard Honey.”

“Forget the whole thing!” Juliana said. “Its a case of misunderstanding. I’m so full of my own problems that I’m nervous and edgy. I’m sorry. Let’s forget it.”

Trixie forgot it—or tried to. She knew how Jim hated any kind of controversy, so she changed the subject.

“Just drop me off at Crabapple Farm, please, Jim,” she said. “Di is bringing her twin brothers to our house to play with Bobby. That surely means I’ll have to help Moms keep an eye on them.”

“Will you mind if I stop off with you, too?” Juliana asked. “I like boys... little ones especially. I have to do something to pass the time. I can at least read to the boys.”

Janie Might Be Dangerous! • 8

THAT EVENING Trixie looked up as she was putting the cloth on the table. “Moms?”

“Yes, what is it, Trixie?”

“I don’t know what’s the matter with me sometimes.”

“What's troubling you now?”

“I get crazy ideas about people. Maybe being a detective makes me sort of suspicious of everyone. This morning, for instance, when Juliana went to the hospital with Honey and me....”

“Yes?”

“Oh, it’s hard to explain, but she seemed to be trying to make Janie more nervous and confused instead of better. She kept asking her so many questions.”

“Did Janie object?”

“She didn’t object, exactly, but she was sort of bewildered. It seemed to me that Juliana knew this but kept on asking—almost as though she wanted to be... mean.”

“That’s a harsh word.”

“I know it is. I told you it’s hard to explain the feeling I had. It makes me ashamed, because look how wonderful she was this afternoon with Larry and Terry Lynch and Bobby! Who else would have thought to ask Dan to ride Spartan over here so the boys could see him dance? They loved it. Dan thinks she’s one hundred percent perfect.”

Mrs. Belden laughed. “She doesn’t sound like a mean person. I wonder—is it Juliana who rubs you the wrong way, or would you feel the same about anyone who upset your Bob-White activities?”

“Oh, Moms, I hope I’m not that selfish. I don’t feel that way about everybody-not about Janie. Everybody loves Janie.”

“Does Honey have this impression of Juliana? Does Jim?”

Of course Jim doesn’t. She’s his cousin. I haven’t said anything to them about it. I guess it’s just me. Forget it!”

Mrs. Belden opened the door to let Reddy out in response to Bobby’s whistle. “You forget it, Trixie. Whatever the feeling is, it will pass away. I’ve been thinking about something else. Since Janie seems to be greatly recovered physically, do you think it would help this amnesia if she’d get away from the hospital, away from the atmosphere of sickness?”

“Oh, Moms, it would! It would! It would help her more than anything. Do you think we could possibly—”

“Invite her to stay with us for a while at Crabapple Farm? This is exactly what I had in mind. I thought I’d ask the doctor about it tomorrow morning. I’ve already talked it over with your dad. He thinks, as I do, that wholesome food, lots of fresh air, walks in the woods, normal people around her— all of it could help Janie. I’ll see if Dr. Gregory agrees.”

In the morning Mrs. Belden took Bobby to White Plains to do some shopping.

“I’ll stop at the hospital first thing and talk to Dr. Gregory,” she told Trixie. They may let me bring Janie home with me later on.

“Perfect! Do you think they will?”

“It’s possible. Oh, dear, I meant to dust the downstairs bedroom. The sheets have been changed, but the room does need more cleaning. Maybe I’d better wait till tomorrow to see about Janie coming here.”

“No! No! I can clean the room. The boys will help me.”

“Oh, we will, will we?” Mart asked. “Who says so?”

“I do,” his mother answered. “It won’t take long. You want Janie to come here, don’t you?”

“Of course, Moms. Oh, all right! All right!”

The big old-fashioned farmhouse was ideally arranged to provide a maximum of privacy for a guest. An extra room and bath had been built downstairs for Trixie’s father and mother just after they had married. A few years later, both grandparents died. Now the room housed Mr. Beldens occasional business guests and, from time to time, the children’s guests.

A big picture window looked out on Mrs. Belden’s rose garden. She had taken prizes at the county fair, especially for the comer garden of old-fashioned yellow banksias, which trailed along the white picket fence, and bushes of sweet-scented moss roses. These were an inheritance from Mr. Belden’s mother and had grown in the same spot for over half a century.

The room itself had been recently refurnished and was gay with yellow-flowered chintz and pale green walls. The furniture was pine, with twin spool beds, bookcases and a matching desk—an inviting room, and one in which Trixie hoped Janie would be happy and grow strong and well.

When Mrs. Belden and Bobby left, the dust began to fly. The boys carried the rug from the guest room and out onto the grass to beat it.

“Whack!” Brian wielded the rattan beater. “There’s one for the guy in the Bronx who put our Bob-White bus on the blink!”

“Whack!” said Mart. “Another for the goon Trixie saw down at the marsh.”

“They’re both the same person,” Trixie said, giving the dust mop a vigorous shake in Mart’s direction. “It was his pipe I found, too, after he jangled those wires on our car.”

Brian laughed. “You and your one-track mind.”

“Yeah, Trixie the Schoolgirl Shamus,” Mart teased. ‘Where did all this dust come from, anyway? Don’t you and Moms ever clean that room?”

“We can’t take the rug out and beat it every time you and Bobby and Brian tramp dust in there. If you’d ever come in the back door, the way Moms keeps telling you to, and use the mat—”

“Forget it!” Mart told her as he and Brian folded the rug. “Is the floor all waxed and ready to accept this superclean job?”

“It is. Will you help me take down the curtains from my room and trade them for those in the guest room?”

“For pete’s sake, what’s the matter with the ones that are hanging there now?” Mart asked.

“Mine are prettier. I want the room to be perfect for Janie. What do you have to do that’s so terribly important that you can’t help me?”

T have to have some time to practice catching balls.”

“All right, then, Brian will help me.”

“And who will pitch the balls? Reddy?”

“Try him. He’s pretty smart. There’s one thing I know, and that is that I promised Moms to have this room ready, and she said you were to help me.”

“We are helping you, aren’t we?”

“Yes, but I can sense mutiny in the air. Mart, this mat has to be centered.” She gave the pretty hooked rug a tug. “There! Now, Brian, you lift one end of the bed while Mart and I try to roll the rug under it. Then you’ll have to help me put the dresser and desk back in place.”

“Gol!” Brian protested. “You’re more of a slave driver than Moms. I’d sure hate to be the guy that you marry.”

“Why?” Mart asked unexpectedly. “Trixie is already a good cook, and, boy, does this room look neat!”

He stood off, dusting his hands. “There should be some flowers on that desk, shouldn’t there?”

“I’ll get ’em,” Brian said and came back soon with a conglomerate bunch of colors—zinnias, marigolds, late, fragrant pinks. He thrust them into a squat Bennington jar, where they looked amazingly appropriate and colorful. “I just hope Janie appreciates all this toil,” he said. “Oh, my aching back!”

“She will. You’ll see,” Trixie said. “It’s going to be wonderful having her here and helping her get well.”

“Trixie, the Florence Nightingale of modern New England!”

“Oh, yes?” Trixie smiled. “You pretend to be so hardhearted, Mart. You’re just an old softie. You’re glad she’s coming here, and you know it.”

“Who wouldn’t want to help a girl who’s in a jam like she is? She doesn’t even know where her family is. She doesn’t even know if she has one or not. It beats me why someone isn’t looking for her. Oh, yikes!” he groaned. “Look who’s coming up the drive now—Juliana! We’ll have to put her to work.

“I don’t think so,” Brian said. “She doesn’t seem to be the working kind. Look how dressed up she is.

They all went out to greet her.

“I didn’t hear Reddy bark, and I didn’t see your mother’s car. I thought perhaps nobody was at home.”

“I’ll say we are,” Mart said, “beating rugs, moving furniture. You’re just in time to help.”

“Don’t pay any attention to Mart,” Trixie said. “We’re through with the hard part of the work. Janie is coming here to stay with us for a while. We’re hoping it will help her get well. Moms and

Bobby have gone to the hospital to get her.”

“Janie... is... coming... here?” Juliana gasped. “Yes. She can take walks in the woods, and Moms will feed her good food, and—” Trixie leaned over to pick up one of Bobby’s toys from the walk. “What makes you so surprised?”

“I’m not surprised. I’m shocked! Did the doctor say she could leave the hospital?”

“Moms is going to ask him. She won’t bring her home unless Dr. Gregory says it’s all right. Why?”

“Why? She might be dangerous, that’s why! She could suddenly go crazy and hurt someone.”

The idea seemed so preposterous to the Beldens that the boys burst out laughing.

“There’s nothing the matter with Janie’s mind,” Trixie said with spirit. “People with amnesia are not dangerous. And Janie’s so little. No wonder Mart and Brian are laughing. Janie probably doesn’t weigh much more than a hundred pounds. How could she hurt any—”

“So even if she were a black belt karate expert, she could hardly take on Bobby,” Mart said, still laughing. “She’s liable to be here soon, Juliana, so if you’re afraid....”

“I can go back to Mrs. Vanderpoel’s. Is that what you mean, Mart? Well, I
can go
back and I’m going. You may regret what you’re doing.” She turned to

“Don’t be cross with us,” Trixie called after her.

“We shouldn’t have laughed at you, but, honestly, Janie isn’t...

“She can’t hear you. She’s so mad she’s practically running,” Mart told Trixie. “Gol, is she some kind of a kook herself?”

“I don’t know. Gleeps, Mart,” Trixie said, “she was so serious.”

“Lost memory dangerous?” Brian snorted. “Anyone with half a head knows better than that.”

“You know it because you’re going to be a doctor. Let’s give Juliana a break. She
is
Jim’s cousin, and we
did
make fun of her. Moms won’t like that if she hears about it.” Trixie glanced at the clock as Reddy barked excitedly—as usual when he recognized the sound of the Belden car approaching.