The Mystery of the Vanishing Victim

father’s money. I even think it’s wonderful that the prize for getting the most donations for the rummage sale is slave labor instead of part of the proceeds. But—-“
    “Eureka!” Mart Belden shouted. “The ordinarily invalid intellect of my simpering sibling has invented, albeit inadvertently, a delightful denouement to this dilemma.”
    “Did I say something right for a change?” Trixie asked, blinking owlishly.
    Brian nodded, grinning. “I think I know what Mart means,” he said. “And it is a wonderful idea.”
    “It sure is,” Dan Mangan agreed.
    “I think it is, too, since I thought of it,” Trixie said. “But would somebody please tell me what it is?”
    “When we tell Mr. Burnside about the damage to the car, we’ll tell him, at the same time, that we’re willing to work off the cost of the repairs,” Brian explained with a happy smile.
    “Oh,” Trixie said. She beamed at the other Bob-Whites. “That is a good idea. I’m glad I thought of it.”
    Brian shoved her teasingly. “The brains of the Belden family,” he jested.
    Trixie continued to smile, and her friends smiled back. It was a relief to have the problem solved.
    “There’s something else to think about,” Jim said, his smile fading. “The damage to the car wasn’t accidental, remember? It was vandalism. Do we dare to keep that car until the sale? Do we even dare to put it on display, along with a lot of others that might be more valuable, and risk having them ruined, too?”
    “I really don’t see that as a problem,” Brian said. “The vandal was Henry Meiser. He made his point.
    He’s probably long gone by now. He won’t risk coming back, especially when there’s a crowd around.”
    “I think you’re right about the cars being safe,” Trixie said. “But I’m not sure I believe that Mr. Meiser was the vandal.”
    “Sergeant Molinson believes it. I think I’m willing to take his word for it, unless you can think of a better suspect,” Brian told her.
    “I bet I can give you three good reasons for Mr. Meiser not being the best suspect,” Trixie retorted.
    “I’m listening,” Brian told her, folding his arms across his chest.
    “Well,” Trixie said slowly, trying to organize her thoughts, “first of all, there’s the note that was left on the car. ‘Leave the miser alone.’ If Mr. Meiser wrote that note, why wouldn’t he spell his name right?”
    “Perchance it was an attempt at subtlety,” Mart said, “a clever alteration of his own cognomen.”
    “Or there might be a small-m miser that Henry capital-m Meiser is looking for,” Brian said. “That was our first thought, the night of the accident. Maybe there’s a miser on Glenwood Avenue, after all.”
    “But none of us remembers hearing about a miser in all of Sleepyside,” Trixie told her brother.
    “It might not be a miser we’d have heard about,” Dan said. “What I mean is, Sergeant Molinson told you Mr. Meiser had accused someone of stealing an invention from him. Maybe he just started calling the thief a miser, because the thief was keeping the profits of the invention to himself, instead of sharing them.”
    “But how could he have expected us to know what his nickname was for the thief? How could he have expected us to know there was a thief?” Trixie asked.
    “He doesn’t remember what he said right before the accident, remember?” Brian said.
    “I remember that he doesn’t remember. I was there when he told me he didn’t remember. Remember?” Trixie returned her brother’s teasing of the day before. “Anyway, I don’t have to have a solution for what ‘the miser’ is. All I have to do is point out that it doesn’t make sense for Mr. Meiser to have written that on the note, if he was the vandal.”
    “All right,” Brian said wearily. “I’ll give you one point for that one. What are the other two?”
    Trixie snapped her fingers as another thought occurred to her. “Henry Meiser told us cars were his passion. I could tell they were from the way he talked about them in the hospital. If he wanted to do something to scare us, the last thing he’d do would be to vandalize an antique car.”
    “I can turn that argument right around to prove it was Henry Meiser who vandalized the car,” Brian said. “Someone who didn’t love cars wouldn’t have stopped with slashed tires and broken headlights if they wanted to vandalize a car. They seem like big items to us, but those are probably the two most easily