The Pet Show Mystery

“He won’t listen to you, no matter how long or how hard you try to talk to him. His sort are interested in finding problems, not in solving them,” the older man said.
    “You call this a solution?” the young man said. With a wave of his arm, he dismissed the girls, the sign-up table, the entry blanks, and the posters.
    “I call it a good start,” the older man said calmly. “If you don’t like it, why don’t you go off somewhere and see if you can come up with something better?”
    The young man opened his mouth to make another sarcastic retort. Something in his confronter’s calm but determined gaze seemed to stop him. Without another word, he turned and strode angrily away from the table.
    “Whew! I guess that’s what they call an angry young man!” Trixie said.
    “You handled him beautifully,” Honey said. “We would have sat here all day, trying to defend ourselves.”
    “Don’t ever feel you need to defend yourself from blowhards like that,” the older man said. His voice was soft and calm, but the gleam in his eyes showed the intensity of his feelings. “If he really cared about others, he’d find a way to help—as you girls have. Instead, he pretends to care about others as a way of calling attention to himself.”
    “I’d never thought of it that way, but I think you’re right,” Trixie said.
    “I know I am. Now, may I make a donation to your cause, just in case the young rebel frightened away some potential donors?” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a large leather wallet.
    “Well, you don’t really donate ,” Trixie explained. “You pay a fee for entering your pet in the pet show, and that’s how we raise money.” The man put his head back and laughed loudly. “My pets are two very aged and placid cocker spaniels. Their show days are long past. I’m sure that they would prefer it if I just gave you some money and let them stay home.”
    “I can understand that,” Trixie said, grinning at him. “My dog will be staying home the day of the contest, too, but not because he’s placid. In fact, he’s so energetic he’d probably destroy the gym.”
    The man had taken a bill out of his wallet.
    As Trixie spoke, he took out another one. “In that case,” he said, “let me make a contribution in your dogs name, as well.” He handed over the money, nodded to the girls, and walked away.
    “There’s forty dollars here!” Trixie gasped. “Two twenty-dollar bills. See?”
    “That’s as much money as twenty entries in the show!” Honey exclaimed.
    “What a wonderful man!” Di said.
    Trixie nodded, then she said thoughtfully, “We actually owe this forty dollars to that loud-mouthed man who attracted the nice man to our table.” She broke into a grin. “If you don’t mind, though, I’m not going to go track him down to thank him.”
    The girls’ laughter was interrupted by the arrival of more entrants in the show, and the next few hours passed quickly as the table stayed busy. By the time Brian came to get the girls in his car, they’d signed up forty-two entries.
    “Added to the thirty we signed up at school, that’s seventy-two pets. And we still have two more weeks to get entries!” Trixie said enthusiastically.
    She repeated her good news to her brothers that evening as they all sat in the den watching the news on television. “At this rate, we won’t need any help from you boys at all,” Trixie said.
    “I congratulate you on your success at the sign-up booth,” Mart said. “But might I remind you that I spent that same period of time in the computer room at school, working on the program for the pet show?”
    “Is it almost ready?” Trixie asked.
    “Almost,” Mart said. “There are still a few glitches to be straightened out, but the teacher says that’s to be expected in undertaking a task of this complexity.”
    “Good,” Trixie said. “Because we’ll have a lot of pets and a lot of categories. I had no idea people owned so many different—” She paused as the picture on the television screen caught her eye. “It’s him!” she shouted.
    “It’s who?” Brian asked.
    “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know his name. Turn up the sound and let’s find out.
    Brian turned the knob, and Trixie heard a familiar voice: “People are starving to death all over the world today. Today, when technology has grown to such proportions that no task as basic as feeding humanity should be beyond our grasp.”
    The face of the