Chapter Fifteen
HACKER hurried behind a grandfather clock. Whoever it was might be a crook and was just coming over to the clock now. Hacker couldn't take any chances. He jumped out and tackled the person, bringing him to the floor.
The person exclaimed, "Hey! What's going on? Let me up!"
Hacker started. The voice sounded very familiar.
"Boyle?" he asked cautiously.
"Yeah, Sgt. Hacker, it's me."
Hacker released his grasp. "I thought you were one of the crooks, Boyle. Are you alright? Why did you suddenly break off the conversation with Carter?"
"Yeah, I'm okay, except for a minor headache," Boyle said ruefully. "Someone knocked me out. I was trying to tell Vince who the actual criminals are and someone came up and whacked me. I heard him say, ‘You won't tell what you know anytime soon!'"
"Did he say anything else?" Hacker asked.
"If he did, I didn't hear him," Boyle responded. "Right after he said that, I passed out. I came to laying on the floor by the phone a few minutes ago and started wandering around."
"And that's when I tackled you."
"Right."
"Oh brother! We've got to get out of here before anything more happens!" Hacker exclaimed.
"We can't go without Pyle and the others," Boyle retorted. "I lost Pyle shortly after we came in here."
"What do you mean ‘others'?" Hacker inquired incredulously.
"Lieutenant Masters and Private Nelson and Private Brighton and Ed Barton," Boyle replied as they walked out of the library.
"Huh?"
"Well, they're all innocent. The real criminals are running loose. If they stay running loose, by tomorrow morning the entire United States will be in jeopardy!"
"I don't get it, Boyle," Hacker said puzzled.
Just then a searchlight beamed brightly at them.
"Well, you'll get it soon," a smoky voice said. "You won't be going anywhere."
Boyle recognized the voice all too well. "Florence Arthurs," he said in a monotone.
"Oh, so you know my real name. You're very smart." A brunette woman stepped out of the shadows, smirking. Her long hair had been cropped short, and she was wearing gold hoop earrings and a black dress. She looked exactly like the woman in the newspaper article.
"Where's Pyle and the others?" Boyle inquired.
"Locked up in a secret tunnel in the basement," Flo returned.
Boyle gasped.
"What is all this?" Hacker burst out.
"Well, I don't know the full story," Boyle answered, "but Ms. Arthurs here and her brother are working for Ike Malconi as spies."
"Her brother?" Hacker exclaimed skeptically. "Who?"
"Private Randy Alexis, alias Rudolph Alonzo," Boyle announced.
"Allow me to introduce my brother." Flo gestured towards the doorway. At that instant, Private Alonzo came out. "Boys, this is Private Randofus Alexis Arthurs, your spy on the base."
"I do believe we've already met," Randofus said, smiling shrewdly. Then, without warning, he grabbed the two Marines and shoved them into the room he'd just came out of.
Boyle and Hacker glanced around. Missiles and blueprints were everywhere.
Flo and Randofus entered the room and shut the door. "Well, since you won't be around to tell the police anything, we might as well tell you of our little plan," Flo cackled.
"We've been in the spy business for years," Randofus bragged. "We've always worked for Ike Malconi."
"Speaking of Malconi, those must be very bright little girls you tend, Corporal," Flo remarked to Boyle. "They were the only ones who ever managed to capture him in the thirty-five years he's been robbing jewelry stores and setting up spy operations. Too bad for the police that they didn't know about the hole Malconi was digging under the floor."
"What about Ed Barton?" Hacker spoke up. "Is he innocent?"
"Perfectly," Randofus replied. "I planted that diamond in his house. Then, when he was in jail, he found out that Malconi is a spy and so Ike had to kidnap him before he blabbed everything to the cops."
"But how did he do it?" Boyle asked.
"He used a genuine lock pick that he always carries with him."
There were so many things that needed explaining! It took over thirty minutes to unravel them all.
"Is Charlie Varney innocent?" Boyle queried.
"Oh, yeah," Randofus responded. "I really was playing pool at his place that one night. He has no idea that I'm a spy."
"Who stole food from my mess hall and why?" Hacker burst out.
"I did that," Randofus laughed. "It was supposed to be a distraction. I then took it to Flo, who was waiting by the gate. And I fixed up those two buckets that crashed down."
"You could have hurt someone!" Hacker exclaimed.
"I wasn't trying to hit anyone," Randofus replied. "It was just supposed to be a warning."
"Why did you kidnap Private Brighton from my platoon and set off a grenade at Company D?" Hacker demanded.
"Walter?" Flo said. "He knew too much. Just as Lieutenant Masters did. And Private Nelson."
"The incident at Company D was something to throw you guys off the track," Randofus added. "Ike hoped you'd think that we were after everyone on base and not just you guys."
"What about those pigeons that Private Pyle found?" Boyle asked.
"They're carrier pigeons. They brought messages to us from the boss and vice versa," Randofus said. "But we won't be needing them anymore so we sold them to an old lady who loves to study pigeons."
"What happened in the alley behind the Bluebird Cafe?" Boyle remembered what Gomer had told him.
"Ike was kidnapping Private Nelson," Flo responded. "He had discovered everything somehow. I think he's a private eye or something. Private Nelson escaped through the locksmith's shop and Ike recaptured him. We were holding him in the locksmith's shop until we could bring him here."
"Was the locksmith involved?"
"Oh no," said Flo airily. "He was on a vacation to Kokomo and didn't know that there was a secret panel in his wall."
"What about the message Pyle found on a table in there?" Boyle asked next.
"What??" Flo exclaimed. "Message??"
"Yeah." Boyle recited the message that Gomer had found.
"I don't know anything about it," Flo said coldly.
"It was probably Private Nelson's," Randofus determined.
"Why was that rumor strung around about me and Sgt. Carter?" Boyle wondered.
"That was Ike's idea," Randofus said proudly. "But actually, I'm not sure why he did it. He's a man of strange whims."
"What about Madame Harper's butler, Jameson? Was someone threatening him?" Boyle inquired next.
"Ike was," Randofus admitted. "He knew that guy from way back when and wanted him to do him the little favor of stealing the jewel pendant so the plot would thicken. But he wouldn't do it. Ike had to bust in and steal it himself."
"Madame Harper will be glad to know that," Boyle mused.
"What about the ransackings? And the threats?" Hacker burst out.
"Just little warnings to keep you guys off the case," Randofus responded. "We are stealing government secrets and missiles and we couldn't have anyone find out about it, now, could we?" he said snidely.
"Some of those threats could have seriously injured everyone on base!" Hacker and Boyle scolded. They recalled the grenade that had gone off and the mortar that had blown up.
"What about the strange things that happened here, in this old mansion?" Boyle queried presently.
"Just some little things we cooked up," Flo answered smoothly.
"Oh, speaking of that, what was that scream I heard?" Boyle asked suddenly.
"That was Flo, I'm afraid," Randofus said regretfully. "Both times. She had discovered spiders. My sister is terrified of spiders."
"Why did you hit me that first time?" Boyle wondered.
"In the room you were in," Flo replied, "was a panel leading to this room. Naturally, we didn't want you discovering it, so Randy hit you."
"Most of all," Hacker exclaimed, "what is the Jewel Pendant?"
"Absolutely nothing!" Flo and Randofus said together. "It just sounded ominous and we wanted to use ominous things in our threats to scare people."
Boyle and Hacker exchanged surprised looks.
"What about those handkerchiefs?" Boyle continued.
"Those? They're a signal developed by Ike. Everytime something happens, such as someone roaming on our turf, we're supposed to drop one of those on the ground. If they have initials, that means it's especially urgent," Randofus explained.
"Why did you kidnap Private Slater?" Boyle persisted.
"We were trying to scare you and your pals off the case. Somehow that Slater escaped." Randofus looked annoyed. "I was the one who did it. Ike thought up the idea and had us paint ‘Sir Sonic Moving' on it."
Suddenly the on-base spy grabbed the two Marines, opened the door, and roughly shoved them out.
"What's going on here?" Hacker demanded.
"You guys are going to join your friends in the passageway," Randofus replied, "and we are clearing out."
"You can't do that! The police are coming!" Hacker snapped.
"Ha! We've heard that one for years!" Flo scoffed.
Sirens wailed at that moment.
"It's true!" Flo screamed. "The police are here!"
Carter rushed over. "Boyle, are you alright? I was so worried about you! We would have came sooner but there was a lot of traffic. We got here as soon as possible."
"I'm fine, Vince," Boyle assured the sergeant.
"Well, what happened?" Carter demanded.
"Randofus here conked me," Boyle explained, gestured at the glaring spy.
Two more officers started to dash downstairs when Boyle and Hacker told them about the prisoners, but before they had reached the bottom, Gomer, Lieutenant Masters, Private Nelson, Private Brighton and Ed Barton all came up.
Gomer hurried over to his friends. "Hey, everybody! I sure am glad the spies have been caught!"
Hands on hips, Boyle turned to face Gomer. "Pyle, there's a couple of other things that need clearing up. For one thing, what exactly happened to you? You just vanished!"
Gomer nodded. "I'm awfully sorry about that, Corporal, but there really wasn't anything I could do. Someone just suddenly hit me on the head, and when I came to, I was locked up in some strange place in the basement with the others here." He gestured towards the Lieutenant, the two Privates, and Ed Barton.
"But Gomer found the way to get us all out," Private Nelson said proudly. "He saw a loose board in the wall. Apparently, the criminals forgot there was a secret passage there. He saved us all! There was a bomb going to go off down there!"
Gomer blushed at the praise. "Aw . . . it was nothin'."
"A bomb??" Carter exclaimed. "You didn't tell us that," he said accusingly to Randofus and Flo.
Randofus nodded sullenly. "It's hidden under a book."
Flo began to scold Randofus. "You fool! Why didn't you check that room for secret passages?"
Randofus didn't answer. He remained silent and glared at the floor. Two police officers rushed downstairs to try to find the bomb.
"Charge these people with attempted murder!!" Carter yelled.
One of the officers and Hacker were questioning Masters, Brighton and Nelson, who all said that they'd stumbled onto incriminating evidence concerning the spy ring and had been kidnapped before they told everything, just as Flo and Randofus had said.
"How did you know that they had found out?" the second officer said to Randofus.
"I caught them snooping around at different times reading letters to me from the boss," the spy replied sullenly.
"Oh, speaking of letters from the boss, here's another one, officer," Boyle spoke up, handing the policemen the letter he'd found in the magazine.
The officers looked it over. "This is bad! Another day and the entire U.S.A. would have been in jeopardy!" The third officer turned to Boyle, his head cocked, and said, "What made you come here, Marine?"
"Well, officer, Private Pyle and I watched a suspense movie the past night. It featured a scene where these people were taken to an abandoned mansion and held hostage there, and that gave me the idea that the whole mystery could be wrapped up here," Boyle responded. "This is the only abandoned house that I know of around here that connected with the mystery."
"Great idea, Marine," the third officer congratulated. "Thanks to your idea, we've solved the entire mystery about the jewels and prevented a lot of trouble with the Mafia!"
Carter suddenly turned to the criminals. "By the way, how do the jewel thefts tie in with all of this?"
"They were distractions," Flo said silkily. "Ike here hoped that the people wouldn't realize that there was a spy operation in progress if there were jewel robberies to think about."
"Everyone will get their things back," the policemen said determined. "Malconi here told me that they've got the jewels hidden in the dumbwaiter here, waiting for an opportunity to sell them. Well, that opportunity won't come!"
"Where's my Troll doll?" Gomer demanded unexpectedly.
"Randofus didn't take it off the base," Flo said in a monotone. "You'll find it in his locker."
"Shame, shame, shame!" Gomer scolded. "It's very wrong to steal things and be international spies!"
Everyone finally headed out of the mansion. As the Marines went over to their Jeeps, Carter said apologetically to his Corporal, "Well, you were right, Boyle. That chick's picture you saw in the paper was Flo. She is a crook. I shouldn't have blown a fuse, but I just didn't want to believe that it was her."
Boyle grinned. "That's alright, Vince. But I do hope you'll tell Bunny about all this and that you're sorry for going out with Flo."
"What's there to tell?" Carter said airily as they drove their Jeep away. Gomer had decided to ride back with Sergeant Hacker.
"Vince!" Boyle scolded.
Carter laughed. "Just kidding! I promise I'll tell her the whole story!"
"Well, it seems that you have a knack for solving mysteries," he said to Gomer, Carter, Boyle and Hacker. "You've all done an excellent job in rounding up the jewel thieves and spies. If another mystery comes up, I'll know who to ask to solve it!"
The four Marines thanked him for his praise, and when they were dismissed, Hacker announced that he'd better get back to the mess hall. "I left Bronski on duty there, and he isn't the best cook in the world," he told the others, quickly departing.
The others slowly walked down the hall.
"So what did Bunny say when you told her everything?" Boyle asked Carter in a low voice.
"She said she was hurt that I would string her along that way and wondered if I even loved her," Carter replied. "I thought I'd go over to Hofmayer's Gems and get her something nice to make up for all the heartbreak."
Gomer couldn't help but overhear. "Aw, now isn't that nice!" he commented. "I'm sure Miss Bunny'll love anything you get for her, whether it's something fancy and expensive or not!"
"I called Madame Harper today to tell her about Jameson," Boyle said. "She was happy to know that he didn't steal her pendant."
"I'm happy too," Gomer added. "But I sure don't know why some people have to live lives of crime! They'd be a lot happier if they didn't!"
Everyone whole-heartedly agreed.
"I still don't understand why the criminals sent us girls threats," Lou-Ann said.
"I asked them about that," Gomer answered. "They said that they hoped you'd tell us about the warnings and we'd decide to forget about solving the mystery."
"Hey!" Boyle said suddenly, "I just remembered something. I asked Private Nelson about that criminal record of his—you know, the shoplifter's accomplice thing—and he said he'd been framed, that he didn't have a thing to do with the shoplifting! So that means that he never committed a crime."
"Shazam! Well, isn't that nice!" Gomer commented. "I mean, it's nice that he didn't commit a crime. It's not nice that he was framed."
"Well! There are some surprises in this mystery-solving business!" Bunny remarked.
"You boys certainly did a wonderful job of cracking the case," Lou-Ann praised. "But it certainly is dangerous, this world of mystery-solving. Are you boys going to continue?"
"I hope not!" Carter burst out instantly. "I've had enough mystery to suit me for a lifetime!"
None of them had any idea that soon they would embark on another mystery, The Flying Saucer Caper, which would be even more suspenseful than this one had been.
"What do you think, Charles?" Mary Ann asked Boyle. "Would you want to solve more mysteries?"
Boyle sighed. "Well, not unless another one comes along." He remembered something else. "That spy magazine I found in Alonzo's locker was what he was reading at the Congo Club that one night. You remember," he said to Carter, "when you first met Flo."
"Don't remind me!" Carter groaned.
Bunny, wearing a sparkling genuine sapphire brooch, retorted, "Well, Vince, if you do get involved in another mystery, I hope you won't find another Florence Arthurs."
Carter blushed. "I hope so too, Bunny."
Gomer snapped his fingers. "Hey! Why don't we all go over to the picture show? They've got a great double feature—Meet Me in the Mafia and Ghost on the Staircase!"
Boyle glanced at Carter, who looked disgusted, then at Gomer. "I don't think Vince wants to see anything like that," he said, amused. "I think we've all had enough suspense and mystery for a while!"
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