Her roommate, Honey, had run down to the library to study for her last final, agreeing that together no studying would be done.  Trixie sighed and reached for her algebra book when she heard a knock at the door.

She bounded off her bed and ran to the door.  "Thank goodness you saved me from..."  Her voice trailed off as she opened the door to find her brother, Mart, lounging against the doorframe.  "Mart!"  She grabbed him, hugged him and pulled him into the room.  "Mart, what are you doing here?  When did you get here?"

Mart laughed and put up his hands.  "No more questions from you, Miss Detective."  He looked around the room and spied Trixie's unopened algebra book on her bed.  "So, it's algebra tonight."  He walked over and paged through the book.  "This is easy stuff, Trix."

Trixie grabbed the book away from him and sniffed.  "Easy for you to say, Mr. ‘I graduated last year and don't ever have to take math again’."  She waved the book in his general direction.  "You did not come all this way to talk about my math final.  What's up? What gives?"

Mart didn't answer but walked around the room slowly.  He picked up the framed picture on Trixie's dresser.  "I think this is my favorite of the Bob-Whites."

Trixie looked at the picture and smiled.  The Bob-Whites of the Glen was a club they'd formed at home in Sleepyside, New York, to help others and, of course, to have fun.  Even through nine years of various members going to colleges all over, the club remained active and very dear to each member. Trixie looked over each member in his or her bright red jackets, all clowning around in the Belden's living room.  Trixie grinned back at herself, holding a peace sign over Honey Wheeler's long golden hair.  Honey had grabbed Trixie's brother Brian's tanned neck with a fake choke.  Honey's adopted brother, Jim Frayne, sat next to Trixie, his long fingers looming threateningly near her throat.  Dan Mangan had Mart in a headlock while Di Lynch lay serenely in front of the group, seeming oblivious to it all.

"Mine too."  Trixie laughed.  "It's so perfect to have you and Brian incapacitated."

Mart put the picture back on the dresser and retorted,  "Too bad Jim didn't get any closer with his hands.  Too often it's you that needs the incapacitating."

Trixie didn't reply but sat on her bed and looked at Mart with a question in her eyes.

Mart didn't sit, but looked back at Trixie.  "You're wondering why I'm here."

Trixie grinned.  "The thought had crossed my mind."

Mart fidgeted with his jacket.  "Well, I've only told a couple of people...actually, just Brian."

Trixie looked at him, horrified.  "What's wrong?  Are you sick?  Are you joining the army?"

Mart burst out laughing.  "No, Miss Sherlock.  Will you let me finish?"

Trixie sighed and leaned against the bed frame.  "As long as it's nothing bad, I can take it."

Mart sat down on the bed.  "Well, I'm...I asked..."  Finally, he threw up his hands.  "I'm getting married!"

Trixie stared at Mart in shock.  "You're what?"

Mart grinned.  "I did it.  I finally did it.  I bought the ring; I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.  And she said yes!"

Trixie lunged forward and hugged Mart tightly.  "Why, that's wonderful! I'm so excited!  When is it all to take place?  Tell me everything!"

Mart laughed.  "Trix, I don't know what's going on yet."  He grinned at her wide blue eyes, so much like his.  "Di was all excited and was calling relatives from all over the place before I'd even left to go home.  She wanted to call you and Honey right away, but I wanted to tell you first."

Trixie grinned.  "How could I not even know?  I mean, I always knew that you and Di were...but I even saw you two at Easter and you never said anything!"

"We weren't engaged then, Trixie."  Mart ran his fingers through his short crew cut.  "Gosh, Trix.  I'm engaged!  One of these years, I'll be an old married man."

"Brian isn't even engaged yet," Trixie said excitedly.  "None of us Beldens are.  Not even Hallie and she's drop-dead gorgeous."

Mart groaned and fell over on Trixie's bed.  "You're confusing me, Trix. It's too late to be confusing me."

"Didn't you tell Jim yet?  Or Dan?"  Trixie bounded toward the phone. "They'll die if you don't tell them."

Mart grabbed Trixie before she could reach the phone.  "No, I haven't told them yet.  Trix, I haven't even talked to Moms and Dad and Bobby yet. They're out visiting Aunt Alicia for the weekend.  I'm sure that every Lynch for miles knows I'm going to marry Di.  She is probably planning her trousseau now."  Mart grinned.  "Women!  Can't live with 'em..."

"And certainly can't live without 'em.  Especially in your case." Trixie grinned.  She looked thoughtfully at Mart for a second and then snapped her fingers.  "I think this calls for an emergency Bob-White meeting."

Mart groaned again.  "Trixie, it's 10:30.  You have a final coming up?"

Trixie sniffed.  "As if a math final is more important than my brother's impending marriage!"  Upon seeing Mart's look, she added, "Besides, I have all of Sunday to study."  She shook her finger at him.  "Besides, if you tell Jim, Honey and Dan next weekend...after you've known for a week, they'll never forgive you."

Mart shook his finger back at Trixie.  "Do you think I should tell Jim, Honey and Dan before I tell Moms?  Before I tell Dad?"

Trixie ran over to her desk and pawed through her drawers and pulled out her address book triumphantly.

"You keep an address book?  You know people's addresses?"  Mart faked a heart attack and fell back on the bed.

Trixie waved him off.  "Moms filled this all out for me when I went to school.  Aunt Alicia's telephone number is right here."  She thrust the book at Mart.  "Call her house and talk to Moms and Dad and tell them what's happened.  You think Honey, Jim and Dan will be mad if you wait to tell them..."

Mart grabbed the book and made a face at Trixie.  He dialed the number and tapped his fingers anxiously against the phone.

"Hello, Aunt Alicia."  Mart twirled the phone around his fingers.  "No, this is Mart.  I'm fine.  How are you?"  He made a face at Trixie who laughed. "I'm at Trixie's dorm.  I'm sorry to call so late, but I really need to talk to Moms.  Thanks."  Mart didn't look at Trixie, but twirled the phone cord more tightly around his fingers.  "Moms?  Hi, it's Mart.  Yes, I know it's late.  No, I'm not sick."  Mart rolled his eyes at Trixie who giggled.  "I've got important news.  I'm getting married."

Trixie could hear her mother's excited yell from across the room.  "Yes. To Di.  Come on, who else would I get married to?  Yes, Trixie and Brian know. I'm at Trixie's right now.  No, I don't want you to come home."  Mart continued his conversation, talking to one excited relative after another for fifteen minutes.  Finally, he hung up and sighed a breath of relief.

"Is this what it's going to be like for ages and ages?  I'm glad Di's family is the one who'll be setting everything up. I’m bushed just telling Moms and Dad."

Trixie reached for the phone.  "Now for the Bob-Whites.  Moms will take care of calling everyone in the family.  After all, you're the first, you know."  She grinned impudently at Mart and dialed the number of the small house Jim, Brian, Mart and Dan were renting together while they worked on building the site for Jim's boys' school.

Brian picked up the phone after one ring.  "Hello?"

"Brian?  It's Trixie.  Isn't this the most exciting thing?"

Brian laughed.  "Yes, it is.  I have been just about bursting since Mart left here an hour ago.  He would tell me first.  I couldn't even call you. Just to quote a famous detective 'I was dying to tell you.'"

Trixie laughed.  "Well, he's here right now.  Collapsed on my bed after the exhaustion of telling Moms and Dad.  I think he talked to fifteen relatives at Aunt Alicia's."

"So, are we supposed to keep the lid on this until tomorrow?  I don't know if I can last much longer."

"Do you honestly think I can sit here and study for a math final and keep it from Honey?"  Trixie grinned.  "We are having an emergency Bob-White meeting."

Brian laughed.  "Perfect.  That's just what I would have suggested to Mart if he could have stayed put for more than twenty seconds.  It took forever for him to tell me and then when he finally did, he grabbed his coat and said he was going to your place to tell you.  Talk about frustration!"

"Okay.  You get Jim and Dan and meet us at..."

"No, why don't you and Mart get Honey and come here?  That way we all won't be driving around.  Mart took the Bob-White station wagon and that just leaves my beat-up car, which is on its last legs.  Was Di going to come too?"

Trixie looked at Mart inquiringly.  "Di?"

Mart smiled.  "Yes.  I'm marrying Di."

Trixie groaned.  "Are we going to go and get her?"

Mart fell back in mock horror.  "You want me...to tell the Bob-Whites...without Di there?  Obviously, you don't value my life.  Di will draw and quarter me.  Especially since she didn't get to tell you or Brian herself."

Trixie smirked.  "Does that answer your question?"

Brian laughed.  "I will expect you, Honey and the..." His voice dropped down to a whisper,  "lovebirds...soon.  Okay?"

"Okay." Trixie hung up the phone and smiled at Mart.  "Are you excited?"

Mart grinned.  "I am so excited you would not even believe it.  I'm more excited than you are when you're on a case."

Honey walked in the door and smiled.  "That's got to be pretty excited." She dropped her history book on her desk with a resounding thunk.  "If I look at one more date, I'm going to die."  She looked from Trixie to Mart.  "Mart Belden!  What are you doing here?"  She laughed.  "I'm so used to falling over Beldens wherever I go that I didn't even think it was strange that you'd be here, talking to Trixie.  What's going on?  What are you so excited about? I’m dying for anything that'll keep me from studying."

Mart grinned.  "That's for me to know and you to find out."

Honey's eyes widened.  "Oh, a secret!  Trixie, he can't keep anything from you.  Tell me!"

Mart chuckled.  "Oh, I can't keep anything from Trixie, can I?"

Honey pointed her finger at the clock.  "It's nearly eleven on a Saturday night.  You know we have finals next week and you know how well Trixie and I study.  Yet, you're here."

Trixie beamed.  "She'll make a wonderful detective."

Honey tossed her gold hair over her shoulder and sniffed.  "I am a detective already, thank you very much."  She looked at Trixie.  "You know what the secret is, don't you, Trix?"

Trixie squirmed a bit under Honey's direct gaze.  "Who said there was a secret?"

Honey looked at Trixie.  "Oh, please.  You are just dying to tell me what Mart told you.  But you can't."  Her eyes grew round suddenly.  "Is it about Brian?  Did he tell you something about me?"

Trixie and Mart stared at Honey and then burst out laughing.  Trixie giggled.  "Honey, you have a vivid imagination.  You're almost worse than me. Mart came over here because the guys are collecting us for a midnight snack."

Mart grimaced.  "Speak for yourself.  Honey, on the one hand, might actually taste good as a midnight snack. But you?  Yuck."

Trixie hit him with her pillow until Honey grabbed it from her.  "Sssh! You want the RA to come in here?"

Trixie grinned.  "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do."

Mart sat up from the bed and straightened his jacket.  "I think I'll collect the RA so we can get out of here."

Honey giggled.  "Yeah, get Di and let's get cracking.  She isn't studying any more than Trixie is."

Mart smiled knowingly and disappeared into the hallway.  A few minutes later, he reappeared with a radiant Di.  Her red B.W.G. jacket matched Mart's and her hands were thrust in her pockets.  Trixie thought she had never looked prettier.  Her jet-black hair hung in a jaunty ponytail and her violet eyes sparkled.  Mart, however, was what remained in her memory.  He stood tall, proud, behind Di with his arm around her shoulders, smiling.  He caught Trixie looking at him and winked.

Trixie grabbed her B.W.G. jacket and threw Honey hers.  She grabbed Di and winked at Mart.  "Come on, Di.  Let's beat Mart to the car.  He can wait for oh-so-slow Honey."  She smiled sweetly at the two and then raced with Di out the door.  As soon as they were a safe distance from the room, Trixie hugged Di with a fierce bear hug.  "Oh, Di!  I am so excited!"

Di hugged Trixie back, her eyes twinkling.  "Trixie, I thought I was going to die not being able to tell you.  Mart insisted that he should get to tell you, you being his sister and all.  But, oh!  Daddy and Mom are thrilled."

"Moms and Dad are too.   You should have heard Moms yell!"  Trixie laughed.  "Let me see that ring.  You're wearing it, aren't you?"

"Of course I am!" Di pulled her hand out of her pocket.  "I swore to Mart that I'd never take it off.  He'd be the only one who could."

Trixie sighed.  "How romantic."  The simple gold band sparkled with a beautiful diamond.  "Gosh, Di.  It's gorgeous!  Mart must have saved eons for it."

Di smiled excitedly.  "He said he'd worked an extra job early in the mornings for a year."  She looked at her ring lovingly.  "That makes it better than anything I could have asked for."

Trixie smiled and hugged her again.  "I think it's wonderful.  I couldn't have asked for a better sister."

Di smiled happily.  "That's right!  We'll be sisters now for real!"

Trixie glanced behind her and noticed Mart laughing with Honey.  "Oops! Di, put your hands in your pockets."

Di slid her hands in the pockets of her jacket and smiled at Honey and Mart.  Trixie looked pointedly at her watch.  "We're going to be late."

Mart patted Trixie on the head.  "If the rest of us can wait, you can too."

Honey grinned at Trixie.  "Maybe Jim isn't too patient either."  Trixie, in response, blushed furiously.

Mart fingered an imaginary beard and pretended to think.  "Hmm.  What was the name of that girl that he was out with last week?  Was it Tracey? Lexie?"

Trixie stuck her tongue out at Mart in response.  Di grabbed Mart's arm and smiled.  "You know perfectly well what girl he was out with last week.  So do we all."  She smiled knowingly at Trixie.  "Let's get going.  After all, I have studying to do."  Mart began to chuckle as they all piled into the car.

At the Guys’ House…

Dan rested his feet against the end of the long couch.  "So, Brian, what in heaven's name are we meeting for?"  He pointed at the clock.  "It's almost eleven-thirty.  Don't the girls have some finals next week?"

Jim looked up from the blueprints in front of him and frowned.  "Trixie has a math final on Monday, which she will never pass if she doesn't study."

Brian came out from the kitchen, carrying a platter with cookies and sodas.  "Tell me, Jim, do you have any idea what final Honey is taking Monday?"

Jim frowned.  "Some sort of history, I think."

"18th Century.  What sort of math final is Trixie taking?"

"Basic Algebra."  Jim looked at Brian with a question in his eyes. "What's the deal, Brian?  Is this really important?"

"This is my point exactly.  It's amazing how well you know Trixie's schedule and you can't even remember what history Honey is taking."

"I could say the same..." Jim began to fume.

Dan laughed and held up his hands. "Let's put it down to the fact that you're both smitten with each other's sisters and leave it at that, will you?" Dan shook his finger in Brian's general direction.  "I believe you were going to tell us why this meeting was called and who exactly called it given this late hour."

Brian grinned.  "Ah, ah, ah.  I know better than that.  Suffice it to say that Trixie called the meeting on someone else's behalf."

Dan rolled over and groaned.  "That helps a lot, Brian.  I have early duty tomorrow at the station.  And I'm exhausted."

Jim looked at Brian knowingly and grabbed a cookie off the platter. "Would this exhaustion come from any late night calls to Idaho?"

Dan grabbed a pillow from the couch and threw it in Jim's general direction.  Then, they heard the rattle of the key in the lock.  Mart's blond head peered around the door.  He grinned.  "Is it safe to come in now?"

Dan sat up and waved at the table.  "Our maid has brought out cookies and soda.  Sit, ladies, and enjoy yourselves."

Jim got up from his seat and took Trixie's coat from her as Brian grabbed Honey's.  Dan grinned knowingly and grabbed Mart's from him.  Of course, there was a tussle as coats and men went flying.  Trixie stepped calmly over the hubbub and grabbed a few cookies and a napkin and sat on the couch.

Honey pushed Mart's toe with her shoe and peered down at him.  "Martin Belden, if you don't tell me what's going on, I'll just die."

Mart sat up, on Dan, and grinned.  Dan pushed him over and then sat up himself.  "You are the biggest oaf I ever saw." He grinned at Mart and then pulled himself over to the table.

Mart groaned and got up to go towards the table.  "Do you see what I have to live with?  Day in and day out. These hooligans run rampant under my roof.  Heaven knows what I was thinking of!"

Di patted the seat next to her and crooned, "Poor baby.  Sit here and take a load off."

Trixie snickered.  "Yeah.  With all those cookies, you sure need to!"

After the laughter died down, Dan looked up from his cookies and smiled at Trixie.  "Okay, Trix.  What gives?  This little party is getting out of control fast.  How about explaining exactly what we're doing here?"

Trixie was silent for a moment as she finished her cookie and then pointed to Mart.  "This is his doing.  He's the one who needs to talk."

All eyes turned to Mart who promptly turned red.  "Well, you don't all need to stare at me!" He looked at Di helplessly.  In response, Di pulled her hand from her pocket.

"Mart gave me this after dinner today." She waved her hand with the diamond on it.

"Is that what I think it is?" breathed Dan.

Di nodded proudly.  "Mart asked me to marry him and I said yes!"  Soon the room was filled with shouts and laughter.  Mart was slammed on the back several times by Jim and Dan.  Honey exclaimed over Di's ring and hugged Mart.

Jim's grin just about split his face.  "Well, I think that this is just the greatest, Mart!" He looked over Di's ring with a practiced pretend eye. "Why, Di!  This is quite a ring.  Are you sure he didn't steal it?" In response to that, Mart threw the same pillow Dan had thrown earlier.

Di looked at her ring lovingly.  "Of course, he didn't.  Mart earned every penny that this ring cost."  She smiled at Mart.

"Well, I think this calls for a celebration!" Honey said, clapping her hands together.  "Let's do something."

Dan pointed to the clock.  "Twelve a.m. ladies.  Isn't there something about an early shift tomorrow?"

Trixie grabbed Dan's arm impatiently.  "How many times do two of your six best friends get married?"  She grinned at him.  "Besides, we'll get you back in time for your shift."

Everyone laughed as Dan groaned.  "How well do you think I'm going to function if we all go out and party all night?  No, I'm sorry, folks, but I'm going to bed."  He turned to Di and hugged her tight.  "Congratulations to both of you."  He patted Mart on the head like a benevolent father and scooted past him up the stairs to the room they shared.

"Well, what about the rest of you?"  Trixie demanded.  "Are you all going to go to bed?"

"I'm so wide awake I'll probably never go to sleep." Honey grinned.  "We could make it a girls' night out on the town if you men are too sleepy to take it."

Jim looked at Brian and Mart.  "Did me ears hear what I thought I just heard?"

Brian and Mart nodded solemnly.  "Aye, mate," Brian clucked sympathetically.  "We're being hounded by those squaws again."

"Don't forget, oh Indians," said Trixie with a grin, "Mart has opted to keep one of the so-called squaws full-time."

Di laughed.  "You mean I opted to keep him."  She grabbed Mart's hand and smiled at him.  "Come on, big chief.  We have a party to go to."

Brian and Jim looked at each other and hefted heavy sighs.  "He falls to the squaws."

Honey smiled benevolently on them.  "I wouldn't be too sure that he'll be the only one."  Trixie laughed in response as she walked through the door held open by Jim.

A little later, they were all seated around a table at Mart’s favorite local burger place, laughing and joking.  Trixie turned to listen to something Honey said and noted that the place had another lone occupant.  He sat at a table near the door, drained the last dregs of his coffee and caught Trixie’s eye.  She stared at him, fascinated, watching his hands.  He walked a coin along the back of his hand and back again as he sat, watching her without blinking.

“Trixie?” Honey put her hand on Trixie’s arm.

“Huh, what?”  Trixie turned toward Honey again and smiled.  “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

Honey looked back in the direction Trixie had been staring.  The man was gone, but his coin nestled prominently on a piece of paper on the table.  “What were you looking at?”

Trixie pushed back her chair from the table.  She leaned next to Honey and whispered, “Hold on a sec, Honey.  I just want to see what the paper says.”

“But, Trixie….”

Trixie hurried over to the table and picked up the coin.  An ordinary quarter.  George’s face stared into the distance, as unimaginative as ever.  She picked up the note on the table and opened it.

Here’s a little “tip” for you.
Be careful whom you hang around with.
Red really isn’t your color.

A friend.

Trixie’s mind started to race and she looked back at the table where her friends, to a one, all stared at her with a question in their eyes.  Her eyes settled on Jim, his freckled face frowning at hers.  “Trix…” he started.  “What are you doing?”

“I, uh…”  Trixie crumpled the note in her hand and dropped it in her pocket.  “Nothing.”  She walked slowly back to the table.  She smiled faintly as five pairs of questioning eyes still demanded an answer.  “I saw this guy at that table….”

Mart groaned and put his head in his hands “…and he looked mysterious.”  He looked up at her through his hands, one blue eye visible and accusing.  “Trix…”

Trixie tossed her head, annoyed.  “That’s not what I was going to say at all.”  She gestured toward the table where the man had been seated.  “He was doing some sort of trick with a coin…walking it across the back of his hand.”  She bit her lip a little nervously.  “It…um…looked neat.  I thought it might be some sort of fancy coin.  He’d left it on the table.”

Di leaned forward, interested.  “Was it?”

Trixie shook her head.  “Nope.  Just a plain quarter.”

“What about the paper?” Brian demanded, "You picked up some sort of paper.”

“What?  Um…no.  It was just a receipt.  I must have picked it up without thinking about it.  I’ll toss it later.”  Trixie smiled at Brian and then looked at Mart again.  “So, big spender, tell me again about how you slaved to buy Di that ring!”

Mart, thus prompted, launched into a long dissertation of his early morning job.  Trixie kept stealing worried glances at the table the man had vacated.  Honey grabbed her arm under the table, leaned over and hissed, “Trixie Belden, there’s something going on.  You better tell me what it is.”

“Later,” Trixie muttered under her breath.  She turned her head away and looked over at Jim.  He was laughing at something Mart had said.  He caught Trixie’s eye and grinned at her.  She smiled back at him, albeit a little nervously.

Later back at the girls’ dorm…

Later, Trixie told Honey about the mysterious note that she’d found.  Both girls had immediately jumped to the same conclusion…Jim.

“Did you get a good look at him, Trixie?”  Honey demanded, “Was it someone you knew?”

Trixie groaned and put her head in her hands.  “No, Honey.”  She looked back up at Honey.  “I was so busy watching his hand, that trick he was doing with the coin…I forgot to even look at his face more than a minute.”  She sank back on her bed in defeat.  “Even if I had the guy right in front of me in a police line-up, I’d never identify him.”

“Are you going to tell Jim about it?” she asked.

Trixie shook her head.  “It wouldn’t do any good.  All I would get is a lecture on my ‘finding mysteries everywhere I go’ if he didn’t believe me.  If he did believe me, then there would be the lecture on ‘being safe’.”  Trixie smiled weakly at Honey.  “There wasn’t even any time to follow the guy – I don’t know what he meant.”

Honey paced around the room agitatedly.  “But what if Jim’s in danger somehow?  Shouldn’t we warn him or say something?”

Trixie shook her head again, stubbornly.  “Honey, Jim’s a grown man.  He can take care of himself.”  She looked at the crumpled paper again.  “The warning was meant for me.  Not him.”  Her eyes grew round.  “Someone doesn’t like me hanging around with Jim.”

Honey’s mouth dropped open and immediately protested.  “You’re not going to break up with Jim just because of some note, are you?”

Trixie’s eyes gleamed with an old familiar shine.  “No, of course not.”  She crumpled the note again in one hand and grinned at Honey.  “If he – whoever he is – doesn’t want me hanging around Jim, he’s more likely to show up again if I spend a lot of extra time with Jim.”  She laughed at Honey’s wide-eyed stare.  “And I can’t say that spending extra time with Jim will be too much of a burden…”

Honey gestured toward the crumpled paper.  “But you’re not going to say anything to Jim?  What does he do if something happens and he’s not prepared?”

Trixie jumped up and hugged Honey.  “Honey, I love you.  But you don’t need to worry.  Jim may not be prepared, but I will be.”  She waved the note in Honey’s face.  “There isn’t anything I can do at this point but wait.  I don’t know what the man looked like and I have no idea what he meant by this warning.  It may not even have been meant for me.”

Honey’s skeptical look showed Trixie what she thought of that.

“Okay.  It probably was.  But at the same time, the only way I can have hope of getting this guy to surface again is to do exactly what he warned me against.  Then we’ll see what happens and what he wants from me.”  Trixie smiled.  “Aren’t you always the one who is cautioning me against jumping to conclusions?”

“Well, yes, Trixie, but I feel…”

“But nothing!  There’s nothing we can do at this point.  Telling Jim would just get him all up at arms and then he’d probably lock me up and throw away the key.”  Trixie’s face brightened.  “And maybe that’s what the guy wants us to do!  To tell Jim and scare him so that he’ll distance himself from me!”  She grabbed Honey’s hands.  “We can’t let that happen!  What if my being separated from Jim is what he wants?”  She shook her head firmly.  “No.  The best thing we can do is stick like a burr to Jim and see what this guy does next.”

Honey smiled faintly.  “And I suppose you’re willing to do most of the duty there…”

Trixie tossed her curls in a way very reminiscent of a young Bobby Belden and grinned cheekily at Honey.  “A detective’s gotta do what she’s gotta do.”

The girls looked at one another and then burst out laughing.  Honey finally sobered and looked at Trixie.  “Okay.  I’ll go along with this for now.  But if anything happens to either one of you, I’ll never forgive myself.”

Trixie hugged her tightly.  “Nothing’s going to happen.  Jim and I will protect each other.”  She smiled.  “You’ll see.”

Honey and Trixie both got ready for bed.  Trixie fell right away to sleep.  Honey turned over and over in her bed, trying to shake the creeping feeling that something was going to happen.  She shuddered and grasped her blankets to her a little tighter, wishing Brian were there to tell her how silly she was.

Time passes…

Finals were taken and passed by all involved.  The three girls trod the graduation carpet and celebrated!  Wedding festivities replaced studying as Di plunged deeply into dress making, shopping and writing invitations.  Much to Trixie’s dismay and Honey’s delight, nothing untoward happened to Jim or to her during this time.  Trixie went with Honey for their second fitting of their bridesmaids’ dresses, grumbling.

“I can’t understand why he hasn’t done anything!”  Trixie complained, shifting unhappily in front of the mirror.

Honey smiled at her from her twin stand across the fitting room.  “And you working so hard to be in Jim’s presence every waking minute!”  Trixie looked at her and burst out laughing.  “But, Trixie,” Honey said, probing delicately, “you haven’t heard anything else from him, have you?”

Trixie shook her head firmly, causing a shout of distress from the dressmaker who had dropped her box of pins.  “Oh, I’m sorry, ma’am,” Trixie cried with chagrin, “I’ll keep straight.”  To prove it, she stood in front of the mirror, still as a stone, her face the only animated part of her body.  “I haven’t heard anything, Honey.  And this waiting is driving me positively crazy!!!”

Honey shrugged.  “Maybe it wasn’t meant for you after all.  The napkin did say, 'tip' on it.  Maybe it was meant for the waitress at the table.”

“I don’t think so.  I remember that he was looking at me.”  Trixie groaned.  “I can’t believe I didn’t pay more attention to his face rather than his hand.  I just couldn’t get over that coin trick.”

Honey smiled sympathetically.  “Well, at least you noticed him!  The rest of us didn’t even see him specifically and wouldn’t have even looked for the note!”  She turned her gaze back toward her reflection.  “Not to change the subject, but I do love these dresses Di picked out.”

Trixie surveyed herself critically in the mirror.  “I do too.  Amazing how she found a pattern that manages to flatter all of us…even me!”

“Even you?  Trixie, you are the prettiest of us all!” Honey protested loyally.

Trixie turned her head to Honey, her eyes sparkling merrily.  “Oh, really?  I don’t think Brian would agree with you.”

Honey laughed and tossed her hair.  “I think Jim would, though.”  The two girls burst out laughing.

A few months later, the wedding day arrives…

Trixie fingered the lace around the collar of her royal blue dress and smiled at her reflection.  She twirled around in a circle, making the dress swish against her legs.  "I feel like I'm the prettiest girl on earth," she declared, her eyes shining. 

Honey grinned at her from her post on the bed, amidst tissue and shopping bags.  "No one who looked at you would know how much you detest shopping."

Trixie laughed.  "I guess not."  She fingered her blond curls.  "I can't get over this hair!  What did you do to it?"

Honey giggled.  "What did I do to it?  You were the one who decided to let it grow to your shoulders."  She sighed.  "I wish I had hair like yours."

Trixie shook her finger at Honey.  "Oh, no, you don't.  Your hair is beautiful.  Long, straight, golden.  Don't you dare wish for this mess of mine."

Honey grinned.  "Trixie, there is no mess.  You look positively gorgeous. If you don't stop it, you'll outshine Di today."

Trixie rolled her eyes.  "As if I even could.  Di looks gorgeous when she wakes up in the morning.  I have to have hours spent on me to even look decent.  She'll be so beautiful that all I'll do is stare at her all day."

Honey looked sober then.  "I think I'll just cry."

Trixie raised an eyebrow.  "Cry?"

Honey sighed.  "It's so romantic.  He's taking her out to San Francisco. The cable cars, the winding streets. . ."

Trixie looked at herself critically in the mirror again.  "Who even knew Mart could be so romantic?"

"Well, he certainly knows a lot.  He's read a million Shakespeare plays and the like.  Why shouldn't he be romantic as well?"

"Oh, I guess he could." Trixie smiled.  "It just seems odd, that's all."

"Mart will make a wonderful husband," Honey said loyally, "He's got that Belden quality about him."

Trixie looked at Honey, amused.  "And what is that?"

Honey smiled sheepishly.  "Just that special quality."  She hugged her knees to her chest.  "That something you all have that always makes me feel so good."

Trixie ran up to Honey and hugged her.  "Well, whatever quality that is, you have it too!"  She, then, gestured toward Honey's dress lying on the bed. "You have to get dressed.  Heavens!  The wedding is in less than an hour!"

Honey grabbed the deep rose dress from off of Di's bed and grinned. "It'll take me five minutes to put this dress on."  She waved towards the door.  "You go check on Di and make sure she hasn't fainted yet."  Trixie grinned in response and hurried out the door.

She knocked on Di's door and burst in in response to Di's "come in!"

Trixie grinned.  "How do you know it's not Mart?"

Di's eyes twinkled.  "Mart doesn't wear dresses to my recollection."

Trixie laughed.  "Who knows?  He might be so nervous that he'll start wearing them.  How are you holding up?"

Di held out her hands to Trixie.  "Look at me!  I'm shaking like a leaf. How am I even going to make it down the aisle?  There's going to be eighteen billion people there. . ."

"And I'm going to be there, and Honey will be there and Brian and Jim and Dan will be there. . ." Trixie smiled.  "Oh, and Mart will be there too." She grabbed Di's hands and smiled.  "Di, we all love you so much.  I don't know how the Lynch side is reacting to all this, but the Beldens are ecstatic."

Di's eyes filled up with tears as she tried to smile.  "The Lynches are beyond ecstatic.  I don't know exactly what that is, but we are.  Mummy and Daddy are pleased as punch.  And my brothers and sisters love Mart to pieces."

Trixie hugged Di tightly and then looked at her.  "Di, you look marvelous.  And here I am crushing you to death."

Di smoothed the bodice of her dress, her eyes sparkling.  "Hardly crushing me to death.  But I thank you."  She looked at Trixie's flushed cheeks and pinned up hair.  "You look perfectly perfect yourself."

Just then, Di's younger sister popped her head around the door.  "Di, Mom wants to talk to you before you do the last touches." Upon seeing Trixie, she smiled.  "Hi, Trixie."

Trixie smiled back.  "Hi Lizzie."

Di dabbed at her eyes with an ever-present handkerchief.  "I'm scared. I really am."  She looked at her reflection.  "I mean, this is it.  After today, I'll be married."

Trixie's eyes twinkled.  "Yes.  You'll be stuck with two more brothers and another sister."

Diana whirled around and hugged Trixie.  "Of course, I'm thrilled about that.  I love you and Brian and Bobby."  She smiled self-consciously.  "And I love Mart."

"I would hope so, if you're marrying him," Lizzie retorted with a smile.  "I'm going to get Mom.  Carol is helping Honey with her hair and she'll come too."  With that, Lizzie closed the door behind her.

Di smiled tremulously at Trixie.  "It might be different, but it'll still be good, right?  You all know that we're still the same Di and Mart and we're still Bob-Whites?"

Trixie hugged her reassuringly.  "Of course!  Why, the Bob-Whites without the two of you would be unthinkable.  Your marriage just makes us closer."

"I'm glad you think so.  I was worried that you all would feel different..."

Trixie grinned.  "Nothing Mart or you could do could make me feel any differently about either of you."  She headed toward the door.  "I'll see you downstairs."

Trixie exited the door and tiptoed down the hall to the room Mart was getting prepped in.  She knocked on the door and entered to Mart's "come in".

Mart was straightening his bow tie in the mirror when he saw Trixie.  He continued playing with the tie nervously.  "About time you got here.  I can't get this tie to sit right."

Trixie gently fixed his tie and smiled at him.  "Better?"

"Better," Mart said gruffly.

Trixie stared at their reflection in the mirror.  "This is it.  In an hour or so, you'll be married."

"Kind of hard to believe, eh?" Mart smiled towards Trixie.  "I'm a little nervous.  Not too terribly much.  Just a little.”  He straightened up, pulled down on the edge of his coat and turned toward Trixie.  “Well, how do I look?”

Trixie looked up at him, his athletic form filled the tuxedo, his blond hair recently cropped and his blue eyes sparkling with excitement.  Her eyes filled.  “You look marvelous.” She smiled tremulously at him.  Blue eyes met blue.  He held out his arms and she hugged him tight.

A voice broke in to the silence that pervaded the room.  “Hey, can anyone get in on this?”  Brian’s dark head peered around the door.  Trixie wiped at her eyes and grinned at him.

Mart did a theatrical groan and slapped his hand to his forehead.  “All these crying women!”  He shook his finger at Brian.  “Don’t tell me you’re going to start!”

Brian and Trixie laughed.  “No, Mr. Belden, I’m not going to start.  However…” Brian smiled at Mart.  “...you should.  They sent me in to fetch you.  Something about a wedding taking place?”

Mart straightened at that and a smile broke across his face.  “Seems to me someone mentioned something like that.”  He strode toward the door and stopped, oddly hesitant.  “You two are coming, right?”

Brian and Trixie exchanged glances.  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

Trixie chimed in at the same time as Brian’s “You bet!”

The wedding day seemed to go by in a blur as most “perfectly perfect” days do.  From poignant looks from the men to their women (Brian stood a little straighter and Jim’s eyes remained fixed – not on Di’s beautiful blue black hair - but on curly blonde tendrils against rosy cheeks), from Di’s violet eyes sparkling as she walked her deliberate pace down the aisle to Mart’s fervent vows that he’d written himself, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

The celebration after the ceremony was large and loud.  Trixie laughingly caught Di’s bridal bouquet and not a few comments went Jim’s way about her being the next to wear a white dress.  Honey hurried to pass out packets of birdseed to the many guests who were eager to usher Mart and Diana on to their honeymoon.  The bride and groom laughingly ran through the gauntlet to their limousine that waited in front of the house.  They both waved gaily and Mart kissed Diana soundly as the car pulled out of the driveway.

Many of the guests went on dancing into the wee hours of the morning.  Trixie, on the other hand, decided that she’d make her way home.  She walked contentedly back toward the house with Jim at her side.

The sun glittered on Trixie's dress as she made her way into the house. She sighed contentedly.  "I love not having to do dishes."

Jim, who walked with her, grinned.  "It is nice not to have to do anything but look good, isn't it?  Di's family sure takes care of things with a bang."

Trixie laughed.  "I love Di dearly, but I think if I ever get married that I'll just have a simple type of wedding.  At Crabapple Farm."

"That sounds nice," Jim replied, watching Trixie from the corner of his eye.  "I love your house."

Trixie blushed and pulled at her dress.  "I do too." She smiled.  "But I think that Mart was so happy, I don't think he missed Crabapple Farm at all."

"How could he?" Jim laughed.  "He hasn't left Di's side all afternoon."

"Well, he isn't going to leave her side for a while, since they'll be in San Francisco for a week," she teased, "Nice of you to give him the time off."

"Natch!" Jim grinned.  "What's a boss for anyway?"

Trixie paused at the stairway to the bedrooms upstairs.  "I promised Moms a night of girl talk.  I think she feels kind of forlorn now that the whole thing's over.  She isn't too smitten about you guys setting up shop so far away."

"We haven't decided on a site yet, Trix." Jim smiled gently.

Trixie smiled and walked up the stairs and then hesitated and turned around.  "I'm not too smitten with you moving that far away either."  With that, she hurried up the stairs.

Jim grinned and put his hands in his pockets, whistling to himself.  He headed toward the door and walked out.

As Trixie neared the top of the stairs, she felt a heavy pressure behind her head and then fell, unconscious, across the top of the stair.  A black clothed figure picked her up and slung her over his shoulder and hurried down the hall.

Back at the guys’ house…

Jim entered the house that he shared with Brian and Dan.  He threw his keys on the table and walked in to find Brian and Dan bickering amicably.  "What's up?"

Dan looked up and grinned.  "Brian here has no clue as to wedding stuff."

Jim raised an eyebrow and sat next to Dan on the couch.  "Oh, really? What stuff is this?"

Brian rolled his eyes.  "There is an old fashioned legend about wedding cake pieces.  I couldn't remember what exactly the legend was, but only that there was one.  Dan, here, has proclaimed himself the expert."

"And pray tell, oh wise one, what is this legend?" Jim said with a grin.

Dan grinned.  "After weddings, girls would write on slips of paper names of guys they liked or loved and would put them in the box that the cake piece had gone home with them in.  Then, they'd put them under their pillows and each day they'd draw out a name.  The last name to be drawn would be the man they would marry."

Jim winked at Brian.  "So, where's your cake?"

Dan patted his stomach contentedly.  "I ate it, of course."

"Then how will you know who you'll get married to?" Brian exclaimed in mock horror.

Dan smiled knowingly.  "I'll trust that that will be answered for me."

"If you're lucky," retorted Brian, "So, Jim, what's the deal?  You took an awfully long time getting back.  Should I put on my best big brother look and ask you if you'd seen my sister?"

Jim laughed.  "I just left your sister and she was going to spend the evening with your mother having girl talk.  So there."

Brian laughed.  "Good.  We wouldn't want anything to happen to her.  Who knows what kind of dastardly deeds you would do?"

Meanwhile…

The black figure crept slowly down the backstairs of Di's house carrying Trixie over his shoulder.  Her blue dress glinted in the last edges of sunlight.  Upon reaching his car, he opened the door and threw her in the back seat.  She fell against the seat's grimy exterior, oblivious to her surroundings.  The man's face quirked in an eerie smile.  "You sure do know how to pick 'em, Jim." He slammed the door and hurried around to the front of the car and hopped in to the driver's seat and sped off.

At the guys’ house…

After much bickering back and forth, the three men collectively decided that bed was looking pretty good.  As they trooped up the stairs, the phone rang.  Jim stopped and turned to answer it.  "Hello?"

"Jim Frayne, please."

"Speaking."

"I have a message from Trixie Belden." The woman's bored voice droned in his ear.  "Could you please call home and let her mother know she won't be there tonight?  Something came up."

Jim frowned.  "Something came up?"

"She didn't say, Mr. Frayne.  She just asked that you would give the message so her mom wouldn't worry."

“Who is this calling?

“Mary.  I work for the Lynches.”

Jim looked at the receiver, an odd feeling in his stomach.  "Okay.  Thanks for the message.  I'll see that her mom gets it."

"Thanks a lot.  Have a good night now."

Jim listened to the dial tone in his ear for several seconds before he replaced the receiver.  Brian and Dan lingered on the stairs with curious expressions on their faces.

"What gives, Jim?  Who was on the phone?" Dan asked.

Jim walked slowly over to Dan and Brian.  "There's something funny going on."

"What do you mean?" asked Brian.

"I left Trixie not a half hour ago and she was talking about going home and having a night of girl talk with your mom.  Now I get this strange phone call about how Trixie wants me to give a message to her mom telling her she can't make it.  The really strange thing about all of this is that it was someone who worked for the Lynches.  Now, if Trixie wanted her mom to know that she wasn't going to be there, why call me?  Or even if she wanted me to tell her, why not tell me at Di's?"

Brian frowned.  "It doesn't sound good to me."

Dan looked puzzled.  "Has Trixie been working on some case we don't know about?"

Jim shook his head.  "She never said anything to me about it."

Brian brightened.  "If it's a case, Honey would know about it.  You know how Trixie gets when she's working on something.  Maybe something came out or some clue came into evidence and she ran to work on it."

"You could be right." Jim snapped his fingers.  "Let's call Honey and find out what's going on."

Jim picked up the phone again and dialed Honey's number.  After a few rings, she picked it up.  "Hello?"

"Hello, Honey.  It's Jim."

"Well, big brother, what can I do for you?"

"Have you talked to Trixie lately?"

"I saw her about an hour or so ago.  She was going over to Crabapple Farm to spend the night with her mother.  Why?"

"Well, that's not exactly what I was looking for.  Is Trixie working on some sort of case?"

"A case?  No, I don't think so.  At least, not one she's told me about. And she usually tells me."

"Great." Jim's feeling of worry grew stronger.  "There is something really fishy going on."

"What do you mean?"

"I left Trixie at Di's house about a half hour ago.  She told me, too, that she was going to go home to her mom's to spend the night.  After I got home, I got a weird telephone call from somebody who works for the Lynches with a message from Trixie."

"A message from Trixie?"

"She had left a message with her that she wasn't going to spend the night at her mother's and for me to call her so she wouldn't worry."

"That doesn't sound right, Jim," Honey fretted.  "What if something's happened to her?"

"I'm going to call Mrs. Belden and relay the message so she won't worry and then we'll start back at Di's house and see if we can't find Trixie."

"I'll meet you at Di's in fifteen minutes," Honey said.

Jim hung up the phone and dialed the Beldens' number.  After assuring Mrs. Belden that Trixie had left him a message, he hung up.

Brian and Dan looked grimly at Jim.

"Something reeks about this whole thing," Brian said.  "What could have happened to Trixie?"

"If only I'd stayed with her.  Or taken her to her mom's," Jim agonized.

Dan shook his head.  "How could you know anything would happened to her? I mean, you left her at Di's house.  There were still people there having a good time.  She could have left with any of them and gotten a ride.  Di's parents could have dropped her home."

Brian's hands clenched by his side.  "Then that means..."

"Someone was waiting for her at the house." Jim gripped the table next to him.

Dan put calming hands on Jim and Brian.  "Guys, we are jumping to a million conclusions.  We haven't even gone to Di's house to ask if anyone's seen her.  She might have gotten delayed talking to someone or something like that."

"Then why would Trixie leave some kind of message like that?  She knew Moms was counting on a nice long talk tonight.  She wouldn't dawdle around talking to a bunch of people when Moms was expecting her," Brian argued.

"If she got trapped into talking to a relative or something like that?" Dan grinned.  "You never know with Trixie.  Now we owe it to her to be calm about this whole thing.  She's the one that likes to jump to conclusions. Let's leave that to her and let's look at things one step at a time."

"I still don't like it," Jim stated firmly.  "Something's very wrong about this whole thing.  If we don't get to the bottom of this soon, we're going to be sorry.  I can feel it in my bones." 

At a local small airport…

The car slowed to a stop in front of a small airfield.  The man got out and pulled open the door to where Trixie lay across the back seat.  He carefully bundled her up in his long trench coat and hurried to the trunk.  He pulled out a wheelchair from the back and then put Trixie in it.  Silently, he wheeled her over to the waiting plane.  The pilot peered down with a friendly gaze.  "Hi there!  What have we here?"

The man buttoned the coat tighter around Trixie.  "She's just come from a party.  Too much to drink, I'm afraid.  Her lady friend has an invalid mother who was resting and she urged me to borrow the wheelchair for her so I wouldn't have to carry her."

"Is she well enough to take on the plane?"

"I was left specific instructions to make sure she got on the plane. She has people waiting there in San Francisco for her.  I don't know about her health.  She ought to come around soon.  Someone'll pick her up there."

"Okay.  Whatever you say." The pilot motioned to the man.  "Let's put her in.  The plane is ready to go."

The man helped put Trixie on the plane and the pilot made her comfortable on the seat behind him.  He waved to the man who smiled slightly and started up the engine.

After the hum of the motor deafened the area around him, the man walked through the shadows to the general parking area.  He carefully placed the wheelchair in the trunk of another car and hopped into the car.  He drove off in a different direction from the way he'd come and grinned to himself as he saw the plane lift off and grow smaller in the distance.  "Solve this one, Jim Frayne.  See if you do so well without your detective around." He chuckled.

At the Lynches…

Brian came down from the upstairs at Di's house, shaking his head. "There is no sign of Trixie anywhere upstairs.  Her clothes bag is still hanging in the closet."

Jim and Dan exchanged looks.  Honey's face fell.  "I was so hoping you'd find her upstairs somewhere," she said quietly.

Brian clenched his fists a little tighter.  "Just let me get my hands on this guy."

Dan sat down, looking worried.  "Okay.  Let's consider our options.  We need to piece together what went on in the last hour or so.  Brian, let's start with you."

Brian said, "I was in charge of getting several relatives to their hotel." He smiled briefly.  "I think Mart wanted to make sure I didn't tie any cans to his car." He sighed and then continued.  "So, I played chauffeur for them.  I saw Mart and Di leave and then dropped everyone off and came home."

Dan said, "When did you last see Trixie?"

Brian smiled a little as he replied, "During the whole bouquet thing. Di threw her bouquet on the way out and Trixie caught it.  While everyone was exclaiming over her, Aunt Alicia pulled me over near the door.  We threw birdseed with everyone else.  After Mart and Di came out, I collected everyone I was supposed to take with me and we left."

"Which was when?"

"About six-thirty."

"Honey, how about you?"

Honey twisted her fingers as she replied, "Trixie had caught the bouquet and she and I were goofing around with it.  The photographer was taking all these pictures." Honey laughed.  "Trixie was about ready to throw the bouquet at him.  Mart'll love those pictures." She sobered. "Di's mom pulled me aside to ask about the birdseed or something." She wrung her hands agitatedly.  "I was with Mother and Dad throwing birdseed.  I didn't see Trixie after that."

Jim remained silent during all the talk, his hands gripping the chair tightly.  Dan turned to Jim and watched him.  "Jim," he hesitated, "you were probably the last one to see Trixie."

Jim said nothing for a minute, emotions battling on his face.  "I should have done something.  I should have walked her to her car.  I should have taken her home myself."

Dan gestured wildly.  "How would you know?  How could you know?  What could you have done differently?"

Jim didn't reply.  Honey twisted a lock of hair and put a hand on Jim's. "I guess we're all feeling a bit helpless.  I can't help feeling that I should have done something differently too."

Brian shifted in his chair.  "Maybe we should call Mart and Di.  I think they'd want to know."

Dan shook his head.  "And tell them what?  Jim got a phone message from Trixie that was weird and we don't know where she is?  What can they do?  Even if they've arrived, which I doubt, they don't need this on their honeymoon. And if Trixie is merely in the midst of something else, we'll get everyone in a stir about it for no reason."

Honey began to argue.  "I don't know about that, Dan.  Mart always seems to have a sixth sense where Trixie is concerned.  He and she usually run along the same track as far as their minds are concerned."

Jim sighed.  "Dan is right.  Calling Mart isn't going to help.  It'll only worry them too."

Brian stood up suddenly.  "What do you suggest we do?  I can't sit here another minute.  I'll go crazy.  You know, she is Mart's sister too.  He's not going to be pleased if something's happened to her and we don't tell him."

"Tell him what?  Should we call him back from his honeymoon so he can sit here and panic like the rest of us?" Dan threw his hands up in frustration.  "I've been trying to get Jim to tell me about Trixie for the past five minutes and all the rest of you do is argue about Mart." Dan gestured around him.  "Mart is not here.  Regardless of whatever sixth sense he has when it comes to Trixie, he can't help us right now.  We need to focus on Trixie and finding out exactly where she is so we don't have to worry anymore."

"Trixie wouldn't worry us like this," Jim said stubbornly, "She may do a lot of crazy things, but she's responsible.  She wouldn't up and desert her mom when she was expecting her."

"Okay, then, let's find out exactly what she did do so we can piece together a time frame," Dan said gently.

Jim slowly released the chair and got up.  "Trixie and I left the wedding.  Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes after Mart and Di left?  Everyone was pretty well dancing away...having a lot of fun at the reception.  But it was mainly Di's family. Most of the Beldens had trooped home.  Trixie and I walked back up to the house and we were talking about the wedding."

Dan listened carefully, not saying anything, but nodding.  Jim took a deep breath and continued,  "We got to talking about the school and how her mom didn't want all of us so far away.  She mentioned she was going to be spending the evening with her mom because Mrs. Belden felt lonesome for Mart, I guess.  Then she went upstairs and I went back home."

"When did you get that phone call?"

"Not more than a half hour or so later." Jim glanced at his watch.  “That makes it at the most an hour and a half that she’s been gone.”  He looked up at Dan, his green eyes narrowing.  “So, where do we start looking?”  He gestured around him.  “She’s obviously not here.  She’s in some serious trouble,” Jim said grimly.

Honey pushed a long golden strand of hair behind her ear nervously.  “Okay.  We all agree that this is strange and that Trixie is probably in trouble.”  She looked at Dan again.  “I’m still not quite comfortable with the idea of not contacting Mart and Di.  Maybe they saw something that we didn’t and would have an idea of where she was.”

Dan shook his head again.  “Honey, we’ve been over this.  Mart and Di left for the airport.  When they left, you were throwing birdseed with your parents.  Jim saw Trixie after that.  Nothing Mart and Di saw would help us.”

Honey interrupted him.  “I know about all that, Dan.  You’re not following me.”  The three men looked at her, startled.  She ticked off on her fingers as she talked.  “First of all, Trixie was a bridesmaid in this wedding.  The wedding took place here on the Lynches’ property.  They had a guest list at the front gate and you couldn’t get in without an invitation or if you were working at the wedding.  So, this isn’t some random intruder coming in here.  This is someone who knew Trixie would be here today and was waiting for her.”

Jim’s jaw tightened as she spoke and Brian grew grimmer.  Dan cleared his throat and ran his hand through his hair.  “Okay.  I’ll certainly give you that.  That doesn’t make things look better for Trixie, though.”  He threw his hands up in frustration.  “And how does that bring Mart and Di into all this?”

Honey responded in exasperation, “Mart and Di are responsible for the guest list!  Di and her mother planned the wedding…they would know who was hired to work the party.  Maybe they would know who was here and we could narrow down who would have taken her!”

Dan mulled over her words for a minute.  “That makes a lot of sense, Honey.  But, I think we could get that information from Mrs. Lynch just as well as Mart and Di.”

Brian shook his head at that.  “Dan, if we bring Mrs. Lynch into this, we might as well pull Mart and Di back from their honeymoon.  We’ll have my parents, Di’s parents and Jim & Honey’s parents into this whole mess quickly.  We don’t even know what we’re dealing with yet.”

Jim grinned a little reluctantly.  Honey noticed his smile and asked, “What’s funny, Jim?”

Jim gestured at the group around him.  “I’m not saying that I recommend pulling Mart into this, but usually he and Trixie are the only ‘let’s jump in with both feet’ types.  Here we all are, arguing about what angle we should take.  Trixie would have been half way to unraveling this mystery by now.”

This drew a reluctant grin from the Bob-Whites around him.  Jim looked at each of them and then began to speak.  “Okay.  Let’s, for the moment, leave Mart and Di out of this.  I agree with Dan.  Until we have something more concrete to go on, it would be pointless to include them in our panicking.”  He held up a hand against Brian and Honey’s protests.  “If we find out…” He hesitated for a moment and continued.  “If we find out that something has happened to Trixie, then we can worry about contacting Mart and Di.”  He grabbed a notebook off of his desk and sat down at the table.  Across the top of a clean page, he wrote What We Know.  “Let’s start at the beginning.  Everyone go over in your mind anyone you saw at the wedding whom you didn’t know and we’ll see if we can narrow some things down.”  He grimly looked at the three Bob-Whites sitting across from him.  “We may not be dashing headlong into danger like Trixie does, but I’m sure it’ll come find us soon enough.  Best that we be prepared for it when it does.”

Above the U.S. Somewhere West…

Di snuggled against Mart and sighed contentedly.  “I am so happy, Mart.  I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am.”

Mart pulled her closer to him and kissed her.  “You can’t begin?  Words fail me, Mrs. Belden…”

“Say it again!” Di said happily.

Mart grinned.  “What?  Words fail me?”

“No.”  Di laughed.  She looked up at him, her eyes shining.  “The other part…”

Mart’s grin faded away and he looked intently at Di.  “I love you, Mrs. Belden.”

“I love you too.  So very, very much!” Di pulled his face down to hers and kissed him thoroughly.  A discreet “ahem” interrupted them and they both looked up, blushing, to see the stewardess beaming down on them.

“I’m so sorry to interrupt!”  The stewardess said.  “I just wanted to send the pilot’s congratulations!”  She laughed then.  “And my own too!”

“Thank you so very much!”  Di beamed at her.

“After we get past these thunder-bumpers, I’ve been told to send a little complimentary champagne your way.”  The stewardess smiled again at the couple.

Mart smiled in return.  “Thanks very much.”  He looked over Di’s shoulder to the window outside.  “Wow!  I didn’t realize we were in such weather!”

The stewardess laughed.  “I’d be very much surprised if you did!”  She turned then and walked back through the cabin.

Di turned Mart’s face away from the open window.  She lowered her eyelashes in one long swoop and looked at him coyly.  “I don’t think this is the time to watch the weather patterns, husband.”

Mart’s eyes grew very large and very round.  His face grew very intent as he pulled Di to him.  “What weather, wife?”

Back at the guys’ house…

Brian and Dan started listing off people that they remembered seeing that they didn’t recognize.  Honey would interject a “no, that was Di’s cousin, Fred” or something similar when she knew the person.  All of the sudden, Honey’s mind flashed back to her conversation with Trixie a few months earlier.  “The warning was meant for me.  Not him!”  She gasped.  Immediately, the conversation stopped and three pairs of eyes immediately looked at her.

“What?” demanded Jim, “You remember something.”

Honey pushed back her hair from her face agitatedly.  “I can’t believe I’m so stupid,” she moaned.

“Stupid about what?” Jim said urgently, “Do you know something?  If you know something, tell us, for heaven’s sake!”

Brian glared at Jim.  “Leave her alone, Jim.  Let her get her bearings.  If she has remembered something, you thundering at her is not going to help jog it along.”

Honey put a placating hand on Brian’s.  “Please.  Let’s not fight.”  She looked over at Jim.  “I told Trixie that she should have told you.”

Jim looked grim.  “Told me what?  Is she involved in some case?  Is that what’s this is all about?  Has she gone chasing off after some case?”

Honey shook her head.  “I don’t think so.  I think it’s worse than that.”  In a few halting sentences, she told Brian, Jim and Dan about the note Trixie had found and the mysterious man that had left it.

Jim had paled as she told the story; Brian was sputtering.  Dan started with a barrage of questions.  “Did you see the guy?  What did he look like?  Was there anything distinctive about the coin?  Where is the note now?”

Honey threw up her hands.  “I don’t know!  It’s been so long now that I’d forgotten all about it.  Trixie was so sure that if she stayed extra close to Jim that the guy would do something.  And then he didn’t.  She was all disappointed and I just felt relieved.  I thought maybe she’d picked up a note meant for someone else.”  Her hands trembled and she dropped them on the table.  “I don’t know what to do.  Trixie had the note.  She let me see it, but she never gave it to me to keep.”

Dan turned from Honey to Jim and thumped the notebook in front of him urgently.  “Jim, it appears that whatever happened to Trixie has something to do with you.  Your list of whom you didn’t know at that wedding is more important than ever.  We have to find out what this coin guy’s connection is to you and why he would warn Trixie away from you.  And fast!”

Continue to Chapter Two

Return to Treasury of Coins Universe

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