The Mystery of the Missing Heiress

Sleepyside, after I left the highway. I remember thinking what a pretty little city it was, but what a lonesome stretch of road! I... I…”
    Janie shivered, hesitated.
    Oh, don’t let her stop remembering now, Trixie prayed, eyes closed.
    “Go on,” Hans urged and put his arm around his fiancee’s shoulders. “Go on, Juliana!”
    “I hadn’t gone far, when a man stepped in front of me... an evil-looking man. I’ll never forget his face as long as I live. Shiny black hair and a cruel, crooked mouth, tobacco-yellowed teeth—”
    “My stepfather!” Jim groaned.
    That terrible smelly tobacco, Trixie thought.
    How could I ever forget it?
    “He held out his hand to stop me. I had to stop, or I’d have run right into him. I remember twisting the steering wheel to pass him, but I lost control of the car and headed straight for a tree....”
    Janie paused, her voice choked with tears. Then she went on. “That’s all I remember, Hans, till I awakened in the hospital. Oh, Hans, everyone has been so good to me. I couldn’t remember my name. I couldn’t even remember you, till I saw you get out of the station wagon.”
    “She tried so hard,” Trixie said. “Every time she tried, that phony Juliana—I wonder where she came from and who she is—every time Janie was on the edge of remembering, that awful girl tried harder to keep her from remembering.”
    “How could we have been so simpleminded?” Jim said disgustedly. “My phony cousin is off with all that money that belongs to Janie... nobody knows where... while we’ve been sitting here like a bunch of dumb clucks, letting her get a head start.”
    “I don’t think so,” Trixie said quietly. “Do you remember the stop I made at the sheriff’s office before we went to the bus?”
    “You were that sure, Trix?” Jim said. “I guess you weren’t one of us dumb clucks.”
    Trixie grinned. “Go on, Janie. Hans will want to know everything. Oh, Janie, it’s so wonderful to know finally that you can remember!”
    With words tumbling over one another, Janie told of the hospital, the Candy Stripers, Dr. Gregory, the nurses, the Bob-Whites, their club and their station wagon, Mrs. Belden, and her stay at Crabapple Farm.
    At this point, Trixie and Honey took over, with help from the other Bob-Whites. They told of the man at the marsh, the letter from Mrs. Schimmel, the trip to the Bronx, the mysterious damage to their car, and the appearance at Mrs. Vanderpoel’s home of the phony Juliana.
    “What happened to my darling little blue Volkswagen?” Janie interrupted.
    “I guess the police will have to figure that one out,” Jim answered. “All we want is a chance at that stepfather of mine!”
    “You said it!” Brian agreed. “When I think of the next trick he pulled, when Janie fell over that cliff!” Hans gasped, and an answering groan went up from the Bob-Whites.
    After they had told Hans this part of the story, he asked, “Didn’t anyone suspect your stepfather, Jim?”
    “How could we at that point?” Trixie broke in. “He hadn’t been seen around here for two years— not since he tried to get Jim’s inheritance away from him. For a detective, I was a prize dumb bunny. In all the cases Honey and I have worked on, there never have been so many mixed-up happenings and clues that we missed.”
    “You were not aware that ‘Janie’ was really my Juliana, Trixie, so how could you solve so many mysteries? Oh, Juliana, to think of all these things threatening you, with me halfway across the world.”
    “You are here now,” Janie said, smiling up at him. “Think of the good friends I’ve had, not even knowing who I was. I think the Bob-Whites and their parents and all their relatives and friends are the kindest, best people in the whole world.”
    “We’re so kind that we almost let you get murdered last night,” Trixie said. “I don’t know why my mind didn’t click when I heard Mrs. Vanderpoel say that Juliana had been with the Thompson family.”
    “Yeah,” Mart said. “You sure had reason to remember Snipe Thompson. That name should have set off an alarm.”
    “How many bells have been ringing in your head?” Brian asked Mart. “Trixie and Honey didn’t know Jones was even in these parts, till they saw him when the lightning flashed last night. They were up and on the watch. You and I were snoring in our beds.”
    “I’m getting confused,” Hans admitted, smiling for the first time since he had heard of Janie’s