The Mystery of the Vanishing Victim

clapped over Trixie’s mouth, and a harsh voice said, “Just one noise from you girls, and it’s the last one you’ll ever make!”
    Trixie gritted her teeth to keep the scream that was rising in her throat from escaping. She felt herself being half-dragged across the lawn. Above the hand that was still clamped tightly across her nose and mouth, Trixie saw a vehicle parked at the curb. She knew that their captor was pushing them toward the open back doors of a green van!
    Trixie and Honey landed hard on the floor of the van, and the doors slammed behind them while they were still pulling themselves upright.
    Trixie drew in deep breaths, grateful that at least the suffocating hand had been removed. She felt Honey’s icy hand clench her arm, and she covered her friend’s hand with her own.
    Their captor hoisted himself into the driver’s seat and put the van in gear.
    “I know who you are,” Trixie said. “You’re the man who ran down Henry Meiser!”
    The driver chuckled. “That’s not who I am at all, young lady. That’s what I did. Who I am is Andy Kowalski.” He turned and looked at the girls with a nasty smile on his face. “I knocked old Hank down the other night, all right. But I was just returning a favor, so to speak,” the man continued.
    The statement clicked in Trixie’s churning mind. “You’re the man who used to work for Mr. Meiser— the one he assaulted.”
    “He told you about that, did he?” Andy Kowalski guessed. “I knew you kids were chummy with the old coot, but I didn’t know you were that close.”
    “He didn’t tell us anything,” Honey protested. “Sure. You just figured it out for yourselves,” Andy Kowalski said sarcastically.
    “I can see why you’d want to get revenge on Henry Meiser, after what he did to you,” Trixie said in what she hoped was a soothing voice. “But how do we fit into that?”
    Andy Kowalski chuckled. “It isn’t revenge I’m after, young lady,” he said. “Revenge and forty cents will get you a pack of gum these days. No, I’m after money in the bank. I’m going to use you girls to get hold of the miser.”
    “The miser again!” Trixie exclaimed. “Who is the miser?”
    “Are you kidding?” he asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “No, I guess you probably aren’t. Old Hank would have to get pretty close to somebody to tell them he’d come up with the most revolutionary new invention in a hundred years.”
    Honey and Trixie exchanged astonished glances.
    The man chuckled again. “Well, I guess the joke’s on me. That little note I left for you kids must not have meant a thing to you. I’m glad I didn’t pay for a stamp!”
    “Then you’re the one who vandalized the Model A!” Trixie said.
    “Who’d you think it was, Santa Claus?” he growled. “I saw you kids with Meiser the night I ran him down. I saw you going to visit Eileen, his secretary. I saw you coming out of his room at the hospital. So I knew you must have got friendly with the old weirdo somehow. He was always real good to Eileen’s kids, buying them toys at Christmas and all. I figured maybe young people in general were the only ones he trusted. I also figured he might trust you to get the miser hidden away somewhere, once he knew I’d tracked him to Sleepyside and most of the way to Eileen’s hideout.”
    Andy Kowalski pulled the van over to the curb. He reached into the front of his shirt and pulled out a gun. “I’ll be back in a minute. And I won’t go so far that a few of these bullets couldn’t catch up with you if you try to run away,” he said, gesturing with the gun. “So you just wait right here.” He climbed out of the van, laughing at the joke he’d just made.
    Trixie leaned over the front seat and looked out the side window of the van. “He’s going into a telephone booth,” she reported. “Who could he possibly be calling?”
    “Who cares?” Honey whimpered. “The question is, how are we going to get out of here? I don’t like that man.”
    Trixie shivered and rubbed her arms hard to quell the goosebumps that had risen on them. “I don’t like him, either,” she said. “I hate the way he keeps making dumb little jokes and laughing at them. It’s as if he doesn’t even know he’s doing anything wrong.”
    “I know,” Honey said. “Imagine calling that hit and run the return of a favor! I think he’s really dangerous, Trixie!”
    Trixie patted Honey’s shoulder clumsily. “We’ll get out of this someway,