The Mystery of the Millionaire

might help is to take care of some unfinished business.” She stood up resolutely. “You get out our assignments. I’m going to ask Laura Ramsey for Mark McGraw’s business card.” Before Honey could protest, Trixie left the room.
    She walked down the long upstairs hallway to the room where Laura Ramsey had been staying. She knocked softly and waited for an answer, but there was none. She knocked again more loudly. Still there was no response.
    Glancing down, Trixie saw that light was shining through the bottom of the door. “If she isn’t there, I really ought to turn off the light. It’s wrong to waste electricity.” Trixie ignored the small squirm in her stomach that accompanied the lie she’d just told herself. She opened the door.
    The room was empty. Trixie’s gaze swept the room and stopped at the closet. The door was open, revealing empty hangers dangling from the rod.
    Trixie entered the room boldly and searched it hurriedly. The drawers of the dresser, too, were empty. There were no cosmetics, no toothpaste, no toothbrush in the adjoining bathroom.
    Trixie ran back down the hallway and burst into Honey’s room. “Laura’s gone!” she announced breathlessly.
    “Gone where?” Honey asked in confusion.
    Trixie’s hands made excited circles in the air. “Away!” she exclaimed vaguely. “I don’t know where, exactly, but I have a hunch. Tell Jim to get the station wagon right away!”
    Honey opened her mouth to protest, then closed it and hurried out of the room.
    Trixie stood frozen for a moment, her stomach churning. She had a momentary twinge of fear that this time, too, she might be mistaken. Suddenly, comfortingly, she remembered Bobby’s words: “Then how do you know he disappeared?” They didn’t know, she realized, if Anthony Ramsey had ever existed! If there was the slightest chance that her hunch was right, there wasn’t a moment to lose.
    She started to run downstairs, then paused and looked back over her shoulder at the telephone standing in the upstairs hall. She debated for a moment. The phone call she knew she ought to make would only add to her embarrassment if she were wrong. She clenched and unclenched her fists nervously, then ran back up the stairs. She dialed the number that her parents had forced her to memorize so long ago, grateful now—as she had been many times before—that they had done so. When a gruff voice answered, she said, “Send a squad car to Mr. Lytell’s store on Glen Road right away.” She hung up before the policeman could ask her to explain.
    She ran back downstairs and out the front door. The station wagon was waiting, motor running, with Jim and Honey already inside.
    Trixie jumped into the backseat. “Drive to Mr. Lytell’s store right away,” she demanded.
    Without pausing to ask questions, Jim put the car in gear and started down the driveway.
    Trixie looked past Honey at him gratefully. Then, realizing that an explanation was in order, although he hadn’t demanded one, she spoke as rapidly as she could. “I went into Laura’s room to get Mr. McGraw’s card. The room was empty! The clothes you’d lent her and everything else were gone. Then it all fell into place. I’d surprised her on the phone in the library right after dinner. She called somebody ‘darling’ and said she’d see him soon. She told me it was her father’s secretary, but I didn’t believe it. When I saw she was gone, I knew right away it was Mark McGraw she was talking to. She was afraid we were onto them, and she’d decided she’d better get away from Manor House. She’d called him to let him know—maybe even to pick her up. I called the police while Honey got you, Jim.”
    Trixie stopped abruptly and looked at Jim. “Gleeps, Jim,” she wailed, “how could you like a crook like Laura?”
    Jim looked surprised. “Like her? Who said I like her?”
    “But you were so nice to her! You took her places and went for walks with her and spent so much time with her and....” Trixie ran out of things to say.
    “Trix,” Jim said, after a thoughtful pause, “first of all, I didn’t know she was a crook. In the second place, I’m not going to let what someone else is change what I am. I hope I’m nice to everyone.”
    “You are, Jim, and I guess I just jumped to the wrong conclusion, as usual.” Trixie slumped contritely, the pink of her face feeling hot.
    “You jump to the right conclusion when it really counts, Trix,” Jim told her with a smile.