The Mystery of the Antique Doll

“He said that the Inspector was given a citation and a medal by the French government for closing down the European end of the operation.”
    “Not bad, not bad,” Dan said with a smile. “And Sergeant Molinson also gave me the reason Carl Reid asked Honey and me to pick up the plates. Mr. Reid knew the operation was being watched on the French end because his regular courier had been arrested. The idea of the antique doll came to him when he overheard us talking about our trip. After getting us to agree to do the dirty work, he quickly telephoned his French connection and instructed him to run out and buy an antique doll—any antique doll—and put the plates inside.”
    “Well, that certainly answers one question, doesn’t it?” said Honey.
    “Which one is that?” Brian asked.
    “For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why he asked us to go pick up the doll with the plates, when it would have been so much easier to simply mail the plates to a box number or have one of his cronies pick them up.”
    “Actually,” Jim said, “it was a pretty smart plan. He knew the French plate-makers were being watched by the French police. If they’d mailed them—or gotten a new courier—the French police could have notified the American police who would then watch the address, or the post office, or the airport until someone came to pick up the plates. That person would have led them straight to Carl Reid.”
    “But instead, Mr. Reid planned it very well,” Mart said. “He sent two obviously touristy American girls who were traveling in a private jet instead of a scheduled airline. That would make it almost impossible for a French agent to track them down and trace them back to him. He also knew that people traveling on private jets always breeze through customs.”
    “There was only one thing he didn’t count on,” Di said, with a laugh. “Carl Reid didn’t understand what happens when you send Trixie to do anything!”
    “It was his first mistake,” Mart said in a theatrically deep voice, “and also his last!”
    “And Sergeant Molinson said to tell you that without our nosy intervention,” Trixie said, “Carl Reid would actually have gotten away with it.”
    “So the Sergeant admitted it, did he?” Mart said thoughtfully. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
    “Me either,” Brian said. “Did he also say, ‘And even though you’re nosy, you’d be welcome on my force any day’?”
    “Well, not in those exact words,” Trixie said with a twinkle in her eye, “but it was close—and from Sergeant Molinson, that means a lot!”
    “So, tell me,” asked Dan. “What’s Mrs. De Keyser going to do about that barn?”
    “She found another tenant,” Honey said. “Really?” Brian said. “Who?”
    “Well,” Trixie answered, “it’s going to be a crafts store next. And it looks like it’ll be really nice, too.”
    “Oh, boy,” Mart said sarcastically. “Just what we need around here—more knitting and crocheting! More darning needles and wool samplers. Well, you can bet there isn’t anything very mysterious about a crafts store.”
    “I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Trixie chided. Then she laughed. “After all, what could possibly have been crooked about an antique store?”

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    Meet cool, dashing, athletic James Budd, sixteen-year-old supersleuth with a taste for adventure. In his specially equipped red Firebird, with his beautiful friend and partner Honey Mack at his side, James is ready to handle intrigue, crime, and trouble wherever he finds them. And find them he does....

    1 THE MYSTERY OF THE MADMAN AT CORNWALL CRAG
    2 THE SECRET OF OPERATION BRAIN
    3 THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST PRINCESS
    4 THE MYSTERY OF GALAXY GAMES