The Mystery of the Headless Horseman

concluded. “I didn’t find a replacement for Harrison’s derby hat at any of the booths. Somehow I don’t think it would have made any difference if I had.”
    Honey gave her a comforting hug. “Di will get over it. You’ll see. I think she just wanted to feel she was really in charge of things for a little while. It’s almost as if Harrison is a part of her family for the time being. Maybe she wants to protect him.”
    “Well, I think it’s dumb!” Trixie burst out. “Harrison’s big enough to look after himself. And it’s not as if I’m accusing him of trying to steal the Ming vase or anything.” She stopped, looking startled. “Or am I?”
    Honey gasped. “Trixie! You can’t mean that! We know who stole the vase. I overheard some of the townspeople talking about that very thing just a little while ago. Everyone’s certain Mr. Crandall took it.”
    “But everyone could be wrong,” Trixie pointed out stubbornly. “I found out a couple of very interesting things this afternoon.” She told Honey about the glass case and the safe with the faulty lock.
    Honey frowned. “I don’t see what that has to do with Harrison.”
    “I’m not sure that I do, either,” Trixie said, thinking hard, “but I’m beginning to. Let’s see.
    We know the Ming vase was delivered to Mr. Crandall at the museum that Friday night. Now, if you were the honest curator of the museum, what would you have done with it?”
    Honey rubbed her nose. “I couldn’t lock it in the display case because I didn’t have a display case. I couldn’t lock it in the safe because the lock was broken.” She sighed. “I give up. What did I do with it?”
    “Supposing you took it home with you,” Trixie said thoughtfully. “Supposing, too, that you needed a quick, safe hiding place for it, just till Monday. What else have you just hidden?”
    Honey took a deep breath. “Wait! I know you told me about this. Ah, I’ve got it! My wife’s birthday present! Oh, Trixie, it all fits.” Her face fell. “There’s only one thing you’ve forgotten. Where did Mr. Crandall hide the birthday present? No one knows.”
    “But we already have the clue to that.” Trixie was excited. “He said the answer was simple. ‘It’s simple,’ he kept saying. And he died that same weekend, Honey, so I think the vase is still at his house. I think Harrison suspects it, and I think he’s been trying to find it.”
    “To steal it?”
    “Maybe so. It’s worth a lot of money.”
    “But what’s simple about the hiding place?”
    “Mother Goose!” Trixie exclaimed suddenly. “There’s a book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes on the bookshelves at Sleepyside Hollow. I saw it. Mr. Crandall liked puzzles, remember? And Mother Goose has a rhyme that goes: ‘Simple Simon met a pieman....’ It’s simple—Simple Simon. I’ll bet if we look, we’ll find another clue somewhere on that page.”
    “Oh, Trix!” Honey breathed. “I think you’ve figured out the solution to everything!”
    Trixie didn’t answer. She had just looked up and realized, to her dismay, that three people had been standing close enough to overhear everything she had been saying.
    Mr. Dunham and Mr. Parkinson smiled at her and paid for their refreshments. The third person simply hurried out of the tent.
    The young woman making the hasty departure was neatly dressed in a navy blue suit. She was one of Harrison’s mysterious visitors.

The Phantom Rides Again • 13

    ITWAS LATE AFTERNOON when the bazaar’s cleanup crews moved into action.
    The high school volunteers worked together like a well-drilled team. In no time at all, tables and chairs had been folded and taken into the house. The booths had been dismantled, the trash picked up, and the refreshment tent collapsed and stored away.
    Soon there was little left on the Lynches’ green lawns to show there ever had been a bazaar. Miss Trask could hardly believe the speed with which everything had disappeared.
    “That’s because we’ve all done this before,”
    Jim explained, grinning. “You ought to see us at the school’s Halloween carnival. We do it even faster then.”
    “And we haven’t really managed to make everything disappear,” Trixie added. “We’ve had to store a lot of our unsold merchandise in the clubhouse.” She looked worried. “I just don’t know what we’re going to do with it.”
    “I should think the best thing would be to return everything to the donors,” Miss Trask said. “Then