The Pet Show Mystery

and a half away!”
    “The program will be functioning by then, I assure you.” Mart spoke calmly, but he took the program out of Trixie’s hands with a little more energy than was necessary.
    Trixie rose and walked slowly back to the chair she’d abandoned along with her attempts at studying. She had just settled in when the phone rang. She jumped to her feet again. “I’ll get it!” she called.
    When she answered the phone, she was surprised to hear Nick’s voice. “How’s everything going?” he asked.
    “Fine,” Trixie said. “How’s everything with you?”
    There was a slight hesitation before Nick spoke again. “I’m fine, too. But, um, has something gone wrong with the pet show?”
    Trixie felt a cold clutch of fear in her stomach. “N-no. Not that I know of. Why?”
    “Well, I had the radio on while I was studying just now, and the announcer on WSTH said that the pet show had been canceled. But I guess I just misunderstood, since you didn’t say you called it off.”
    “The show is on—but maybe you did hear it was canceled,” Trixie said.
    “I don’t understand,” Nick told her.
    “I don’t, either. But I’m going to find out. Thanks for calling, Nick.” Trixie said goodbye quickly, hung up the phone, and hurried into the den. “Nick Roberts just heard on the radio that the pet show has been canceled,” she told her brothers.
    “Canceled?” Brian said. “Who’d do a thing like that?”
    “I don’t know,” Trixie said grimly, “but I intend to find out.”
    She was on her way back to the telephone when it rang again. This time when she answered it, she heard Honey Wheeler’s distraught voice: “Trixie, the most awful thing has happened!”
    “You heard the announcement on the radio,” Trixie guessed.
    “Did you hear it, too?” Honey asked.
    “I didn’t. Nick Roberts did, and he called to tell me about it. It’s another act of sabotage, Honey. I’m sure of it.”
    “What will we do?” Honey wailed.
    “First, I’ll call the radio station and let them know the show isn’t canceled. Then I’ll try to find out who started this,” Trixie said.
    “I’ll let you go, then. Let me know what happens,” Honey said as she hung up.
    Trixie looked up the telephone number for the radio station with trembling hands. She dialed the number, and the announcer himself answered.
    “My name is Trixie Belden,” she told him. “You just announced that a pet show I’m helping with has been canceled. That information is wrong. Could you tell me where you heard it?”
    “Why, from you,” the announcer said. “Or someone who claimed to be Trixie Belden. But the voice was nothing like yours. I’m sorry if there’s been a misunderstanding.”
    There’s that word again, Trixie thought. But this is more serious than a simple misunderstanding. Aloud she only said, “The pet show hasn’t been canceled. It’s important to us that everybody knows that.”
    “Of course. I’ll make the announcement several times tonight. I’ll make sure the morning announcer mentions it, too. I’m sure there will be no permanent harm done from this.”
    I hope not, Trixie thought uneasily. She thanked the announcer and hung up.
    “What happened, Trix?” Brian asked. “Did you get it all straightened out?”
    Trixie told her brothers about the announcer’s call from the imposter, and about his promise to set the record straight.
    “That was a close one,” Mart said. “It’s lucky we caught it when we did, so there’s no harm done.”
    “Maybe next time we won’t be so lucky,” Trixie muttered.
    “Let’s hope there won’t be a next time,” Brian said.
    “What if just hoping isn’t enough?” Trixie challenged him. “I think we should be doing something to stop the sabotage.”
    “Like what?” Brian asked. “We have no suspects, and no idea what the motive is behind the acts of sabotage. We don’t even know that it is sabotage.”
    “Oh, come on!” Trixie said impatiently. Brian raised his hand to fend off Trixie’s protest. “All right, the rumor and the cancellation announcement are suspicious. But how can we prove anything?”
    “The proof has to be somewhere,” Trixie said stubbornly.
    “Maybe,” Brian acknowledged. “But finding it would take too much time and energy, and we don’t have enough of either one.”
    “That is a reiteration of a reasonable rationale,” Mart added.
    Realizing that there was no point in arguing with her brothers, Trixie went