The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder

think I like that Margo Birch one little bit.”
    “Or Vera Parker, either,” Honey said loyally as they all hurried to the store’s main entrance. “I’m sorry, Mart. I shouldn’t even have suggested Crimper’s at all.”
    “Forget it, Honey,” Mart answered, over his shoulder. “You couldn’t have known anything like that was going to happen. And I suppose I’d better get used to being thought of as Public Enemy Number One until this business is over and done with.”
    Trixie didn’t say anything until they were standing once more on the wet sidewalk. The rain had stopped as suddenly as it had started, though the wind was stronger than it had been before.
    Trixie shivered, then burst out, “The whole thing is simply stupid!”
    “I know,” Mart said, thrusting his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans, “which is why I need the help of all of my friends.”
    “Let’s go to my place,” Di suggested suddenly, “and that way our cook can fix us lunch while Mart tells us everything.”
    Dan grunted. “And this time nothing's going to stop us.”
    So many things had happened already that Trixie wouldn’t have been at all surprised it this time, too, some other form of disaster was about to prevent them from hearing what Mart had to say.
    But nothing did. Half an hour later, they faced Mart in Di’s sumptuous family room and settled themselves down to listen.
    “It all began,” Mart said, staring out of the large windows, “a few weeks ago, when I started my journalism class.”
    Trixie frowned. “I don’t see what that’s got to do with anything.”
    Honey put her finger to her lips. “Hush, Trix. Let’s hear the rest of it.”
    “Yes,” Brian said, nodding his dark head. “No more interruptions now.”
    Mart kept his gaze fixed on the wide expanse of green lawn. “You might say that ‘Some people are born great, others achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.’ That’s a famous quotation.”
    “I don’t care about any dumb old quotation,” Trixie cried, forgetting that she had intended to keep quiet. “Tell us what your journalism class has got to do with the Midnight Marauder.”
    “It’s got virtually everything to do with it,” Mart answered.
    Di giggled. “Though, now I come to think of it, that quotation did sound as though it came straight from the school newspaper. Miss Lonelyheart is always quoting stuff like that.”
    Jim raised his red head sharply. “Hey, that’s right!”
    Trixie sighed and forgot her good intentions again. “I still can’t help wondering which one of the counselors really is Miss Lonelyheart,” she said thoughtfully.
    Mart shoved one hand into the pocket of his jeans and nervously jingled the coins he found there. “As for that,” he said, “it’s the easiest question to answer out of this whole rotten mess.” Trixie stared. “It is? But I thought you didn’t know. All right, then. Who is Miss Lonelyheart?” Mart turned from the window at last and faced his friends. “Haven’t you guessed?” he asked miserably. “Miss Lonelyheart is me.”

Mart’s Confession ● 7

    THERE WAS stunned silence. Then everyone began talking at once.
    “You?” Trixie said. “Did you say you were Miss Lonelyheart?”
    “If this is one of your jokes—” Brian began.
    Di blushed crimson. “Oh, no! I—I just wrote a letter to Miss Lonelyheart only last week—”
    “But—but you can’t be Miss Lonelyheart, Mart!” Honey exclaimed.
    “But he’s not joking,” Dan put in. “Look at Mart’s face.”
    There was another silence, while Mart’s face and neck turned beet red.
    “Go ahead,” he burst out at last. “Why don’t you all laugh? I know you want to. If it were me listening, I’d be falling on the floor in hysterics by now. Didn’t you get it? I’m Miss Lonelyheart. I’ve been Miss Lonelyheart all along. Me, Mart Belden!”
    Jim’s mouth was twitching, but he managed to say solemnly, “We’re not laughing, Mart. Honest!”
    “Of course not,” Brian added, without quite looking at his brother.
    “We wouldn’t laugh over anything like that, would we, Trix?” Honey said, avoiding her best friend’s eyes.
    Trixie struggled to swallow back the laughter that she could feel beginning to bubble up from somewhere deep inside her. “No,” she said, trying vainly to stop her voice from shaking. “We wouldn’t laugh over anything like that, would we?” Then all at once, she started to giggle.