The Mystery of the Vanishing Victim

“Sergeant Molinson is coming over to talk to us this morning, so I may not have time. I’d like to read you a story, though. I promise I’ll do my best to make the time.”
    “You always do your best, Honey,” Bobby said approvingly. “Trixie doesn’t always do her best, and Mart doesn’t always do his best, and Brian doesn’t always—”
    “Bobby, why don’t you pass Honey the scrambled eggs?” Helen Belden asked, interrupting another possibly endless list.
    “Okay,” Bobby said cheerfully.
    “I hope Sergeant Molinson gets here right after breakfast,” Trixie said, rushing to get a word in before Bobby started up again. “Now that I’m awake and thinking again, I’m already starting to get antsy.”
    “The sergeant is usually prompt,” Mrs. Belden said. “I’m sure he won’t keep you waiting if he can help it.”
    “I hope he can tell us something about the stranger’s condition,” Honey said.
    “You won’t have to wait for Sergeant Molinson to find out about that,” Brian told her. “We called the hospital before you two were up this morning.”
    “Oh, Brian, why didn’t you tell us? What did they say? Is the man all right? Can we visit him?” Trixie demanded.
    Brian wrapped his arms around his head as if protecting himself from an avalanche. “Whoa!” he shouted. “The hospital said he was in serious condition, which is better than critical but not as good as satisfactory. In other words, he’s not in immediate danger, but he’s still pretty badly hurt. The only visitors he can have right now are members of his immediate family. And the reason I didn’t tell you
    I’d called was, I suppose, that I knew I would be letting myself in for the very barrage of questions that I got.”
    Trixie waved .away Brian’s last comment impatiently. “If the hospital is only allowing him to see his immediate family, then they must have found out who he is,” she said.
    “As a matter of fact, they haven’t,” Brian said. “When I said I wanted to check on the condition of the hit-and-run victim who was brought in last night, the woman on the phone asked me if I knew who he was.”
    “Sergeant Molinson told me last night that one reason he wouldn’t be coming over until today was that not finding any identification on the man had caused him a lot of extra paperwork,” Mrs. Belden said.
    “Then I don’t understand,” Trixie said. “How can the hospital say that only immediate family members are allowed to visit, if they don’t even know who the man is?”
    “Never underestimate the convolutions of the bureaucracy,” Mart Belden said. “Undoubtedly that phrase is part of the administrative patois, a rationale meant to soften the disappointment accompanying the denial.”
    “Would somebody translate?” Trixie asked, looking as perplexed as she felt.
    “Mart means that the hospital has thought up some stock phrases that sound like good reasons for saying what they say. Just telling me I can’t visit someone is too abrupt. Saying I can’t visit because I’m not immediate family sounds better, and it would make sense in most cases,” Brian said.
    “This isn’t most cases,” Trixie pointed out.
    “If the hospital had to teach the volunteers a separate response for each case, volunteering to answer the telephone would turn into a full-time job,” Mrs. Belden said sensibly.
    “Whoopee!” Trixie shouted.
    “We have just heard a response of the type commonly denoted the ‘non sequitur,’ ” Mart Belden said sarcastically. “However, there is, I predict, a rationale for it that my sibling deems rational.”
    “You bet there is,” Trixie said. “When Moms mentioned the hospital volunteers, I remembered that I’m a volunteer there, too. In fact, my day to work as a Volunteen happens to be tomorrow.”
    “I have a feeling that our stranger is going to get a visit from someone outside the immediate family, whether or not he or the hospital likes it,” Brian said.
    “Oh, I’ll ask permission to see him,” Trixie assured him. “But even if they say I can’t visit, I’m sure I’ll be able to get more information, once I’m there, than we can over the phone.”
    “Sergeant Molinson may have some answers for us, as well as some questions,” Honey said.
    “Oh, woe! We’re right back where we started, waiting for Sergeant Molinson,” Trixie said.
    As if on cue, the front doorbell rang.
    “I don’t think we’re waiting anymore,” Brian said as he pushed