The Mystery of the Vanishing Victim

Is that it?” He looked around at the four young people.
    “There’s something else,” Trixie blurted. She stopped and looked pleadingly at Honey, wanting her friend’s encouragement to tell the others her theory. Honey nodded slightly, and Trixie continued.
    “Last night, after we got home, I kept thinking about the accident. There’s something that bothers me about that van. The way I put it to myself was that it ‘came out of nowhere.’ ”
    “That’s how it seemed, all right,” Mart said quietly as he, too, remembered the scene.
    “Well, as I thought about that, it seemed to me that a van speeding toward us from blocks and blocks away wouldn’t give that impression. But a van that was parked, with its headlights off, just a short distance away, would seem as if it just started toward us suddenly.”
    “You mean you think someone was parked nearby, waiting for the stranger to cross the street so he could run him down? Trixie, that’s ridiculous!” Brian said.
    “It isn’t ridiculous!” Trixie said hotly.
    “All right, then. We’ll just call it farfetched,” Brian replied.
    “What’s farfetched about it?” Honey demanded. She’d been willing to admit her own doubts to Trixie privately, but she wasn’t about to see her friend’s theory scoffed at.
    “Well, for one thing, a van pulling out of a parking place at a high speed would have made even more noise than a van barreling straight down the street. We would have heard it,” Brian said.
    “That would be true if he’d been in a tight parking place,” Trixie said. “But those streets were deserted.
    He could have just pulled ahead slowly, with his headlights off, until he was right on top of us.”
    “All right,” Brian said. “I’ll concede that point. But the stranger walked toward us from the opposite direction. How would the driver of the van know the stranger was going to cross the street right then?”
    “I’m not saying he did know that,” Trixie said. “What if the driver of the van was following the stranger? He saw the stranger stop to help us. He wanted to keep an eye on the stranger, but he couldn’t do that if he pulled over directly behind us—and, of course, he couldn’t just leave the car in the middle of the street. So he circled the block, or a couple of blocks, and pulled over on the opposite side. He saw you pointing toward Glenwood, and he figured the stranger was about to start walking again. That’s when he started pulling slowly out of the parking place. Maybe at that point he didn’t intend to run him down. Maybe he was just going to keep following him. Then, for some reason, he changed his mind. He gunned the engine and turned on the headlights, thinking the stranger would be blinded by them and confused. Then he ran him down.”
    “You paint a vivid picture, Trix, but it just doesn’t hold up,” Brian said. “Why was the stranger being followed? Why did the driver of the van decide to run him down—especially right there, the only spot for blocks where there would be witnesses?”
    “I don’t know,” Trixie said miserably.
    “We can alleviate strain to our credulity, albeit intensify that to our psyches, if we assume that the vehicle was on a random but longitudinal course and we were not cognizant of it,” Mart said.
    “You mean you think I’ve made up this whole story because I feel guilty about not having seen the van in time to warn the stranger about it?” Trixie asked.
    “It would be more comfortable that way, wouldn’t it?” Mart asked simply. “I think we all feel a little guilty about what happened. The stranger stopped to help us, and then we stood by and watched him get hit by a car.”
    Honey started to cry. “Oh, that’s exactly how I feel, Mart! But I didn’t know it until you said it.”
    “I guess I do feel that way, too, Mart,” Trixie said. “But I don’t think I made up that story to make myself feel better.”
    “Well, I’d say you folks have no reason to feel guilty,” Sergeant Molinson said. “It wasn’t your fault. It was the driver’s—and the victim’s, too. Neither was watching where he was going.
    “I can’t say I buy your story that the hit and run was intentional, Trixie. But here’s something important for you to remember: Hit and run is a crime, whether it’s premeditated or not. For that reason
    alone, we’ll put plenty of manpower into finding the driver of that van. Once we find him, we’ll be able to find out whether