Chapter Seventeen: And Then There Were Three

    Trixie pitched forward and landed at the feet of her astonished friends.
    “Have fun,” Lee said with a smirk and slammed the door closed.
    “Just passing?” Brian demanded sarcastically, cautiously holding his side as he reached out his hand to help his sister to her feet.
    “Very funny.” Trixie glared at him. “I’d think you’d recognise a rescue when you saw one.”
    “I guess I’m a little off my game,” Brian responded. “Usually being rescued involves actually, being rescued. You know— freed, liberated.”
    “I didn’t say it was a successful rescue,” Trixie said.
    “Oh, stop it, you two.” Honey flung her arms around her best friend. “Trix, I am glad to see you, but what are doing here? And where are the rest of the Bob-Whites? You can’t have come here alone; Jim would never let you do that.”
    “Jim doesn’t exactly know where I am. Neither do the rest of the Bob-Whites,” Trixie admitted shamefacedly
    “How much does Jim know?” Brian asked.
    “I left a note,” Trixie said defensively, “saying I was following a lead, but I couldn’t tell them where I was going because I didn’t know where I was going to end up.”
    Brian looked as if he were about to start lecturing but a look from Honey made him hold this tongue.
    “Don’t be mad, Brian,” Trixie begged. “I was trying to be careful and I didn’t mean to get caught.”
      Brian nodded and reached out to tousle his sister’s sandy curls. Trixie responded by giving her brother a huge hug, but Brian winced and pulled away.
    “Brian, what happened to you?” The lamp did not throw a great deal of light, and Trixie peered at her brother’s face intently.
    “They beat him,” Honey cried. “One held him and the other—” Honey broke off, the recollection too painful.
    “What?” Trixie spun from brother to friend. “Two of them, but what were
 you—?” she too broke off, uncertain how to put her question.
    “Honey had a chance to escape; they started in on me after she ran out.”
    “But they found you?” Trixie’s blue eyes filled with tears as turned to her friend and tried to imagine what the two had gone through.
    “She came back,” Brian corrected. “She could have hidden, kept trying to escape, but she heard what they were doing and she came back and attacked the guy that was beating me.” 
    “Oh, Honey, thank you.” Trixie embraced her. “That was so brave.” She caught sight of the mark on her friend’s face. "They hurt you too!”
    “I’m fine.”
    “That little creep slapped her,” Brian said.
    Trixie shook her head. “Boy, whichever one did that had better hope Jim never catches up with him.”

    “How is Jim, and what about our folks?” Honey’s concern for her family and friends was obvious.
    “Everyone’s worried,” Trixie replied. “All of the Bob-Whites are here and your dad. Your mother’s been in Paris but she’s flying in this afternoon and so are our parents,” she added, turning to Brian, then back to Honey. “In fact, that’s where your dad, Jim and Mart are now, picking them up from the airport.”
     “And now they have even more to worry about,” he remarked.
    “How did you find us, Trix?” Honey asked, not wanting the two to start bickering again.
    “That’s actually a very good question. Let’s get comfortable.” Brian motioned toward the mattress, and the three Bob-Whites sat down.

    “Well, of course after you disappeared, we called the police, and the Bob-Whites, and our folks, and then we started to try and figure out what had happened.”
    “Something you happen to be very good at, I admit,” Brian said, “but how did you end up here?”
     “To cut a very long story short, a whole lot of things point to the Whedon brothers, at least that’s what they call themselves.” At the blank looks on Brian and Honey’s faces, Trixie hurried to explain. “Those speed freaks from the apartment block. Anyway, it seems like they might be involved in the kidnapping, so I followed them.”
    Honey gasped.
    “You did what?” Brian grabbed his sister’s arm, his dark eyes narrowed. “You deliberately followed the people you thought might be responsible for abducting us! Without help? Without any kind of back up? Trixie, you are unbelievable!”
    “I’m sorry!” Trixie pulled her arm free. “I honestly thought that the others were wrong. I was trying to prove that it wasn’t them. I’d never have followed them if I actually believed they were behind everything. Even the FBI wasn’t convinced.” She couldn’t help her voice cracking as she spoke, and Honey moved to hug her friend.
    “Okay, so things pointed to these guys, but you weren’t buying it, so you followed them to…?” Brian held up his hands in a gesture of confusion.
    “I figured they were up to something shady, but probably not that serious, and if I could find out what it was, then I might be able to get the others to see that I’m right.”
    “And now?” Brian asked.
    “Now, I guess my days as detective are numbered. I lost track of their car after I arrived here. Then one of them came out. He was wearing that silly mask and I still couldn’t say which one he was, but he went around the corner of the building so I came out from behind the dumpster and sneaked inside. I’d just got in when I heard him coming back.”
    “And he caught you.” Brian said
    “Not at first. I hid, then I came looking for you.” Trixie replied
    Brian looked as if he might actually explode; instead, he raised a brow in his sister’s direction. “Where exactly did you hide?”
    “In the cupboard near the stairs.” Honey spoke without even thinking, and both Beldens turned their attention to her.
     “That’s right, but how did you know?” Trixie frowned.
    Brian pulled back and regarded Honey with dark, serious eyes. “You found the exit.”
    Honey gulped and nodded.
    “You could have gotten away.”
    Honey nodded again.
    “I don’t get it. I really don’t. Not only did you not go when I asked you to, but you lied to me too! I don’t think you’ve ever lied to me before.” Brian sounded as though this latest revelation was the last straw.
    “I didn’t lie,” Honey cried. “I just didn’t tell you that I’d made it to the exit. Like Trixie, I hid in the cupboard when Neil came looking for me. I was going to go after he left, but he threatened you and I knew he meant it.”
    “You still should have gone.”
    “He might have killed you,” Honey said
    “At least you’d be free, and Trixie probably wouldn’t be here either.”
    “Fine,” Honey tried but failed to keep her voice steady. “But you’d never have left me. I guess I’m a coward, I’m stupid, this is all my fault, but if you think for one second that I’m sorry I came back, then you are wrong, Brian Belden.”
    “Of course you’re not a coward or stupid. I never said anything like that.”
    “Stop it, Brian,” Trixie commanded. “None of this is Honey’s fault, and even if I wasn’t as careful as I should have been, none of it’s my fault either. As for telling the truth, you should try it. The reason you’re so mad at Honey and me is because you blame yourself. And that’s the craziest thing of all.”
    Brian let his breath out slowly. “You’re absolutely right, Trix, I’m sorry.” He reached over to give his sister’s arm a gentle squeeze. “And you too, Honey. No one could have been braver through this whole thing than you’ve been, and you’re right that nothing would have made me leave you behind.”
    “Good.” Trixie rubbed her hands together briskly. “Now that we’ve sorted that out perhaps we can focus on the people we should really be mad at.”
    “Well, let’s start with who the Whedon brothers really are and why they would do something like this.”
    “We believe, and the police and the FBI agree, that the Campbell family is probably behind this. Revenge is a pretty powerful motive.”
    “The family that lost all their money,” Brian said
    “Right. It turns out that your dad, Honey, bailed out their company, but he got it awful cheap and they never recovered. In fact, the father got drunk and died in a car accident about a year-and-a-half later, and he always blamed your dad for his problems.”
    “That’s awful,” Honey said. “But why didn’t Dad tell us he had a connection here?”
    “He didn’t think it mattered. No one had heard from the Campbells in years.”
    “And you think the Whedon brothers are actually the Campbells?” Brian queried.
    “It kind of looks that way. They are around the right age, early and late twenties, and we know there are two Campbell brothers. They think there’s another younger child, but they’re having trouble tracing them.”
    “But you’re still not sure, are you, Trix?” Honey hooked a well-shaped brow in her partner’s direction.
    “We found your watch,” Trixie said. “It ended up on the arm of that charming Ally.”
    Honey bristled, and Brian rolled his eyes. “Can you two please not go off on a tangent?”
    Trixie shrugged. “Anyway, when the FBI questioned her about it, she said that Tim Whedon had given it to her.”
    “What did he say?” Honey wanted to know.
    “They hadn’t had a chance to ask him last time we saw them and neither have I, but I guess he’d lie about it if it was true.”
    “How does she know the Whedons?” Brian asked.
    “From visiting her brother and hanging around you, I guess. The way she tells it, Tim has quite a thing for her.”      
    “Well, she is quite attractive,” Brian began. When he caught the look that passed between the two girls, he hastily added, “Not to me, but in a general kind of way.”

     “But there are three of them. Who’s the other one?” Honey wondered.
    “That’s even worse,” Trixie said, looking over at her brother. “The way it looks it might be your friend Jeff Correlli. He’s been seen hanging around with the Whedons, and he’s been pretty evasive about a few things.”
    Brian shook his dark head. “I find that really hard to believe. I mean his folks have been terrific to Jim and I, and even though Jeff isn’t the most outgoing guy, he’s never said or done anything to make me think he could be involved.”
    “He’s definitely hiding something.” Trixie said. “And he’s lied about knowing the Whedons.”
    “I hope you got my watch back,” Honey commented, changing the subject.
    Trixie nodded. “After your dad told the FBI that he’d give her a reward.”
    “And?” Brian prompted.
    “She said no, she couldn’t possibly take it under the circumstances—the big phony.”
    “Trix.” Brian shook his head.
    “Well, she is, what kind of person accepts a gift from someone she says she doesn’t even like? And the inscription alone should have told her something. Mart says she might not have looked inside, but as if…”  Trixie rolled her eyes. “Besides, Honey was wearing that watch the day we met her, so she could easily have seen it.” 
    Brian quite sensibly made no comment on this information. Instead, he asked, “Why do you have doubts, Trix?”
    Trixie wrinkled her nose. “Dan’s talked to these guys a couple of times, and I’ve talked to them, and while they don’t seem to have much regard for road laws or their neighbours, and they sure are wary when you mention the police, still…” she trailed off.
    “It doesn’t sound like they’re exactly upstanding citizens,” Brian noted.
    “No,” Trixie admitted. “But maybe that’s what got my attention in the first place.” Seeing the confused expressions of the others, she hurried on. “I mean whoever kidnapped you had to plan and coordinate things pretty carefully; these two can barely put their t-shirts on the right way.”
    Both Honey and Brian laughed and Honey added, “That makes sense to me.”
    “It would,” Brian said, but the smile he gave her took any sting out of his words.
    “Well, what do you think?” Trixie asked him
     “You know as well as I do that appearances can be very deceptive.” Brian didn’t want to upset his sister, but had to be honest with her. He rubbed his hand across his forehead. “I sure hate to think Jeff might be involved; his parents will be devastated.”
    Honey placed a comforting hand on his forearm. “It does fit in with what we were talking about though, doesn’t it?”
    “What?” Trixie demanded
    Brian frowned. “After what happened yesterday, our hosts brought in something for Honey to clean me up with, and they also brought us some tea and Ken, the shorter one, said something about hot, sweet tea being good for shock, even though it’s a bit of an old wives tale.”
    “So,” Trixie shrugged. “We know that. You’re always going on about stuff like that.”
    “Exactly.” Brian’s tone was thoughtful. “Just a couple of weeks ago I brought it up in class, a few people laughed, but the lecturer said there was a lot of truth in those old remedies.”
    “Oh,” Trixie breathed. “Was Jeff there?”
    Brian nodded “Jeff, and Rachel, Terry and Mick.”
    “I don’t mean to be the wet blanket now,” Honey spoke up. “But it’s a fairly well-known theory.”
    Brian nodded. “That’s true, Honey, but there was something about the way he said it. You know. Oh heck, maybe I’m just imagining things.”
    Honey thought for a moment. “No, you’re right. He did say it like that as if you, in particular, knew what he was saying.” She gazed at him admiringly. “That was really observant of you.”
    Trixie grinned. “Maybe Brian can be an associate member of the Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency.”
    Brian shook his head. “No offence, but no thanks. I’ll leave the detecting to my sister and her more-than-capable partner. Anyway,” he added, mainly to see how Trixie would react. “I’m thinking of stealing Honey for my medical practise; she’d make a great nurse.”
    “Don’t you dare, Brian Belden,” Trixie flared, then catching sight of her brother’s face she poked out her tongue. “You just get cuter and cuter, I don’t know how Honey can stand you.”
    “Oh, I manage,” Honey said, while Brian returned the squeeze she gave his hand.
    Trixie rolled her eyes. “You two are hopeless, wait till Mart sees you together, all gooey eyed, you’ll never live it down.”
Honey blushed but Brian merely raised a dark brow. “Right, because Jim was obviously giving you the kiss of life when I came back from the store the other night. What happened, Beatrix, sudden lack of oxygen?”  
    Trixie turned bright red. “It was just one kiss,” she said as Honey began to giggle. A minute later all three were laughing hard.
    “Oh, I can’t afford to laugh right now,” Brian said, clutching his side and lightly touching his ribs.
    Honey wiped away a tear. “I really needed to do that.” 
    Trixie straightened up and gave her new surroundings as thorough a look as the small lamp would allow. “Nice place,” she observed with mock seriousness.
    “It grows on you,” Brian said.
    “I can see why,” Trixie continued. “It has a certain something.”
    “We like it,” Brian agreed
    “I’m thinking of redoing my bedroom at the Manor House like this,” Honey said. “I believe it’s called minimalism.”
Trixie stared at her friend in genuine surprise.
    “Well,” Honey defended herself. “Why should you two get to be all clever and funny by yourselves?”
    “I think you’re just terrific, Honey,” Trixie said. “Most people would have lost their sense of humour a long time ago.”
    “Most people haven’t spent as much time with the Beldens as I have,” her friend returned.
    Brian glanced at his watch. “I think we should try and get some sleep; it’s getting late. You girls take the mattress, I’ll be okay on the floor.”
    Honey shook her head vehemently. “Not with your injuries, you won’t. I can sleep on the floor.”
    Trixie opened her mouth to protest, but Brian spoke first. “You sure are bossy tonight, Miss Wheeler. I think if we lie across the mattress, rather than along it, we should all be able to sleep on it.”
The three Bob-Whites positioned themselves on the mattress and were able to get relatively comfortable. Brian handed each of the girls a blanket. Honey promptly handed hers back again, but before Brian could complain, Trixie reached over to grab it and spread the two blankets so that all three were covered.
    “Okay.” Brian’s voice indicated his surrender. “I know better than to argue with both Belden and Wheeler, girl detectives.”
    “Good,” said Trixie, snuggling down next to Honey. “I’ll see you guys in the morning.”
Honey and Brian mumbled goodnights in return and Brian reached over to the crate and switched off the lamp. The room was enveloped in total darkness.

    Trixie soon became aware of the even breathing of her companions and knew they were asleep. Her eyes remained wide open, though she could see nothing at all. She wondered what Jim was doing. He must be terribly worried. I really should think before I act she thought. Brian’s right. I shouldn’t have come here without back up; sometimes I am just too impulsive. That’s what happens when there’s no Honey around to make me see sense. She closed her eyes, knowing she should try and get some rest. She had to have faith, the other Bob-Whites were smart, and more than that, they knew her really well, especially Jim. They’ll find us. She promised silently. I just know they will.
    She was awakened from her sleep, sometime later, by the sound of roaring engines and the squeal of tyres. She sat up suddenly, her heart pounding. She listened for a moment, but the sound of the cars faded away. Neither Honey nor Brian seemed to have been disturbed by the noise, and after a moment Trixie lay down, closed her eyes, and eventually went back to sleep. 

  MBW:MAIN                                                                                                                                                                                                                      NEXT

Author's notes:  Dana continues to try and save me from myself and improves everything I write. I continue to appreciate the wonderful Jixsters who support me by reading this story.
Word count: 3027
    Disclaimer: Trixie et al belong to Random House and not to me. No profit is being made from these scribblings.