The Mystery of the Uninvited Ghost

to have hauled that wouldn’t go in the station wagon?” He shrugged. “I suppose you want to go over there.”
    “Why not?” Trixie demanded. “We can just kind of...She gestured with both hands, palms up, as if she weighed invisible objects.
    Honey giggled. “All right. Let’s go, ‘kind of.’ ” While shopping bags were stored in the station wagon, Jim suggested that it might look odd if the whole group inquired about one wheelchair. He told Trixie, “We’ll wait for you.”
    Trixie pulled Honey across the parking lot on the run while Hallie loped two steps behind.
    Teed Moving Service occupied a warehouse on an alley behind Wimpy’s. When the three girls entered, they found no one behind the high counter that blocked off an office area. A desk sign read, HATTIE ROE. Two men, wearing visored caps with badges, leaned elbows on the counter. One of them said, “Hattie’s out back somewhere for a few minutes,” then turned back to resume his conversation.
    “The darnedest thing happened on my run yesterday. I was supposed to deliver this wheelchair to a cripple, see, out near where all them rich guys live— Wheelers, Lynches, Beldens—and—”
    Trixie sputtered. This was the first time she had ever heard her family called rich. For an instant, she worried about the ethics of eavesdropping. But, she argued with herself, how can I be eavesdropping when they’re looking right at me while they talk? They had to be talking about that intriguing wheel-chair! But—who was crippled?
    “Well, here’s what happened, see. Hattie musta wrote down a wrong number. I told her I never heard of no such place out there, and I was right, ’cause when I found that address it belonged to a burnt-out shell of a house with weeds growing through the bricks.”
    Honey whispered, “Jim’s uncle’s house.” Trixie nodded. The Frayne house had burned.
    “Just in case they’d built a house back in the woods someplace, I got out and scouted around, see, but there wasn’t no house, just like I told Hattie. All I could do was get back in the pickup with this guy I’d given a lift. He was sittin’ there waitin’ for me.”
    “That’s a violation,” the second driver reminded the storyteller.
    “Sure, but I figured old man Teed wouldn’t never find out. I chalked it up to a public service.
    “Well, I let this guy off down the road, and I turned off on a side road to finish my deliveries, see. When I got back here to report in, I didn’t have no wheelchair, and I didn’t have no signed, sealed, and delivered slip neither. Now, what d’ya make of that?”
    “Tough luck,” the second man muttered. “Trouble?”
    “Well—I dunno. Not yet. Teed, he put an ad in the Sun and I’m waitin’ to ask Hattie if that chair got turned in. She takes all the phone calls. She oughta know. Wish me luck. Here she comes.”
    Silently both the drivers and the girls watched Hattie Roe, the desk clerk, return to her post. She told the drivers, “I’ll talk to you in a minute.” She asked the girls, “May I help you?”
    “It’s about the wheelchair,” Hallie said, leaving Trixie with her mouth open, her question unasked.
    Hattie tapped the eraser of her pencil against the counter. “Are you the folks who ordered that chair from White Plains Hospital Supply? There seems to have been a mix-up. If you’ll give me the right address, I’ll see that the matter is taken care of.”
    “No,” Hallie explained, “we didn’t order it. We noticed your ad in the paper, and we just want to report that we saw the chair.”
    By this time, Trixie was sizzling. Here stood the Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency in person —both persons!—without a chance to get a word in edgewise. Who did Hallie Belden think she was?
    “On Glen Road,” Trixie put in sharply.
    Hattie glanced at Trixie, but she spoke to Hallie. “Thank you for your interest. That chair was returned.” She nodded toward the drivers.
    The man in trouble mopped his brow and said, “Looks like I’m off the hook.” Both drivers walked through a door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY.
    Feeling both let down and angry, Trixie headed for the station wagon. The faster she walked, the angrier she became. At her heels and breathing down her neck came Hallie. Behind Hallie, Honey made placating noises meant to calm both cousins.
    When they reached the car, Hallie made a flat statement. “That was sure a wild-goose chase. Ever since I came, I’ve heard nothing but wheelchair,