Research Holp

Notes for #19 The Secret of the Unseen Treasure © 1977
Page #	Quote
13	Trixie: "School is out. I'm free for the whole summer."
14	Seventeen-year-old Brian combed fingers through his dark, wavy hair. Brian: "I suggest they (Trixie and Mart) both be kept out of trouble by enrolling them in summer school."
15	Six-year-old Bobby interrupted.
16	Trixie: "Oh, go stick your head in a dictionary and close it hard." Mrs. Belden: "I remember how it feels when school lets out for the summer." Bobby: "Was Trixie your babysitter too?" Mrs. Belden: "No, Mrs. Elliot was." Trixie: "I always thought your sitter's name was Ethel Rogers." Mrs. Belden: "That was her name before she married Sam Elliot, a widower with a teen-age son."
17	Trixie: "Is Max Elliot her stepson?" Mart: "He ran away from home just before Mr. Elliot died five years ago. Now he's back." Mrs. Belden: "It's nice that Ethel Elliot has his help. She's barely been able to hold onto the place with just Social Security payments and the produce she's been able to raise and sell."
20	Miss Trask: "I wouldn't consider spoiling your plans for today. I know how it feels when school lets out for the summer. Believe me, it's a relief for the teachers, too!" Amen!
21	Brian: "Sometimes engines are better off without my help." Tom: "Brian will be a fine doctor. When I accidentally gashed my arm, he did a good job of first aid. There wasn't anything left for Dr. Gregory to do except give me a tetanus shot." Honey Wheeler was the same age as Trixie, but taller and slimmer.
22	Diana Lynch, the quietest member of the B.W.G.'s always let her large violet eyes express what her voice didn't. Dan: "You'll have to count me out for now. I've got to help Mr. Maypenny finish putting out salt blocks for the deer, and then I have to do some errands in town."
23	Bill Regan, the horse trainer, hunched his broad shoulders.
24	No one but Mr. Wheeler, Regan, and Jim Frayne could manage Jupiter, Mr. Wheeler's stallion.
26	Trixie gazed down into a secluded, picturesque little valley. Mrs. Elliot's cottage nested there, a white bungalow surrounded by flowers of all colors. Beyond the flowers, neat rows of vegetables.
28	Jim: "He's using a red can, like the kind you use to carry gas!" Trixie: "That man is going to set fire to Mrs. Elliot's property!"
29	Jupe leaped over a small brook.
31	Mrs. Elliot's eyes as blue as delphiniums, peered through thick glasses. her deeply tanned face was framed by short, curly gray hair.
33	Max Elliot's dark eyes flashed, and there was an angry glow under the tan of his unshaven cheeks.
34	Trixie: "Don't touch it! We should call Sgt. Molinson. There may be fingerprints."
35	Sgt. Molinson: "One at a time!" Honey and Jim looked at Trixie.
36	Ignoring her, Molinson gestured to Jim. Sgt. Molinson: "You first. Then the others, if I think its necessary."
37	Sgt. Molinson: "Jim and Max will have to stop by the station as soon as possible so I can take their prints. Then we'll know which ones to eliminate on the can."
39	Molinson's glance moved from Trixie to Honey and back again. "I'd like to get my hands on the creep too."
41	Trixie: "I guess I'm not very patient. I tried planting sweet peas this spring, but I gave up and quit watering them before they blossomed."
42	Trixie spotted the opened frame of an old umbrella, hanging from the beam of the arbor. From each umbrella rib, stout twine hung to the ground for the sweet peas to climb on.
45	Dan: "Would you recognize the man if you saw him again? I think you should leave this to Sgt. Molinson. Arson is serious business. Dangerous."
47	Trixie stood to one side, watching, as the fingerprints of Jim's right hand were taken. Molinson hung up the phone and spoke to one of his officers. "That was the local Social Security office. Here's a list of numbers of the checks that were stolen from the rural postal route on Glen Road."
48	Sgt. Molinson: "The names of people who didn't receive their Social Security checks were in last weeks paper." Say what? That's private information. Trixie hurried out of the police station and down the street to the office of the Sleepyside Sun.
53	Mart: "Brainstorm coming! Everyone batten down the hatches!" Mrs. Belden: "Mart. We don't shout at the table."
54	Mrs. Belden: "I've known Ethel Elliot most of my life. If she saw something illegal, she'd report it."
55	Mr. Belden: "She has Social Security mail her check directly to the bank. If you were actually doing detective work, you would have to concentrate on facts, not assumptions."
57	Honey: "They tell us they 'know how we feel' because they were young once. Then they turn right around and refuse to understand how we feel."
58	Trixie: "That's not like Dan. He's usually as interested in a case as we are." Honey: "I went to the stable last night to help Regan bed down the horses. Dan was there. He was digging for something."
59	Trixie: "That sounds like he had a definite car in mind."
60	They wore swimsuits under their clothes, since someone often got pushed into the water before he or she had a chance to change.
61	When Di arrived, there was a contest to see who could stay underwater the longest. Trixie and Honey tied for last. You would think that a great swimmer would have better lung capacity than that.
66	It was a torn paper bag, and it was filled with brown envelopes. Trixie felt a large stone that had been used to weight the bag and make it sink.
72	Brian: "There's a police rule against a male officer transporting a woman in a police car without a policewoman as an escort. You're not a little girl anymore, sis. You're a young woman."
73	Sgt. Molinson: "It's not like television, where there are clues all around, just waiting to be noticed. Real detective work isn't so quick and easy."
79	A cheerful-looking white-haired lady (Mrs. Hartman), leaning on a cane, answered the door.
80	Charles Hartman came into the room. He stood erect and was lean and catlike. Only his white hair betrayed his age. Mr. Hartman: " I was out back chopping wood." Well, now we know Dan isn't the only one. Mrs. Hartman: "Nearly fifty years we've been married. He still acts like it was yesterday."
83	Mr. Hartman: "I'm an ex-cop. I'd still be on the Albany police force if they didn't have mandatory retirement rules. I'm also an ex-judo instructor."
86	June led the way into July. Trixie was grounded — not as punishment.
87	Jim and Brian were away as counselors at a boys' camp. That left the Bob-Whites without a driver, since Dan, who had just got his driver's license, was usually too busy helping Mr. Maypenny. Mrs. Belden was organizing the garden club to participate in a flower contest sponsored by a White Plains newspaper.
90	Mr. Belden: "Bank business is private of course. What I say is to stay at this table and go no farther. Ethel Elliot came to me for a loan. She needs a new pump for her well."
92	Mr. Belden: "Give up, Mart. You haven't got a chance. I know from experience." He glanced from Trixie to her mother.
95	Mart carried his father's Leica camera.
96	Dan told Bobby about twin fawns he had seen on the Wheeler game preserve. Bobby told Dan about a dragon he had seen behind the Belden's shed.
99	Mrs. Elliot: "Bobby! I've hardly seen you since you were a baby."
103	Honey: "You should have taken a picture of the expression on Trixie's face." Mart: "The aperture would have atrophied." Trixie: "I'll aprofy your atrochure!"
105	Dan: "Don't let Mart squelch your imagination anymore. This pump didn't wear itself out. It was sabotaged!" And, he's back!
107	Trixie: "So that's what I saw you doing." Dan: "You don't miss much, Trixie."
110	Trixie: "I knew something was wrong." Dan: "Was it that obvious? I was in town on the day of the arson attempt. And I ran into somebody I knew. Somebody from the city."
111	Trixie: "Someone from the gang?" Dan: "Sort of. An older guy named Al Finlay. He's a real rat."
112	Dan: "Among other things, Al Finley is a firebug."
117	Mrs. Elliot: "I offered to have the deed put in his (Max) name now, but he refused. I offered him co-ownership, too, but he didn't want any part of that either."
118	Mrs. Elliot: "Manton's, the flower shop in White Plains, ordered several dozen of these recently."
123	Miss Trask was driving them to White Plains to pick up Brian and Jim. The bus bringing the young men home from camp would arrive in White Plains in the early afternoon.
127	The flower shop wasn't in the newest part of town; it was in a run-down area, on a side street. Tall buildings across from it prevented the sun from reaching the dirty windows.
128	A tall, redheaded young woman was working. "I'm Ann Rinehart. My sister Debbie was in school with you until we moved here from Sleepyside."
129	The dark-haired man came out from the office. He smiled, but the smile looked like a card-board cutout pasted on his face.
133	During the ride Jim and Brian told about their two weeks at the camp for underprivileged children. Brian, in addition to being a tent leader, had assisted in the doctor's tent. Brian: "We did have one near-drowning. Jim got to the boy as he was going under. And Jim revived him with mouth-to-mouth. He's the camp hero!"
134	Honey: "I asked Dan to describe Al Finlay." Trixie: "Well?" Honey: "It was him. The man in the flower shop."
137	Trixie: "On Monday night, we're going to stand guard over the carnations."
138	Di: "Couldn't we just tell Sgt. Molinson to put a stakeoff —" Mart: "You mean a stakeout."
140	Mart: "I have a question. Why couldn't my sister be interested in something safe and sensible … like hockey or professional wrestling?"
142	Brian patted a leather case attached to his belt. It contained a walkie-talkie, one of a set given to Mart the previous Christmas.
150	Trixie: "That's not corn! I don't know what they are, but I'll bet Max does."
151	Trixie: "Let's take some pieces of these plants along with us."
160	In the morning, the Bob-Whites met at the clubhouse for breakfast.
161	Jim and Brian prepared bacon and scrambled eggs and lots of buttered toast. Huh? The clubhouse now has a kitchen with a fridge and stove? Jim: "I'm no botanist." Brian: "Neither am I." Huh? This is the boy who knows all about herbs and plants.
163	Mart: "I'm pretty sure it's Caabis." Brian: "I thought so too." Mart: "Usually it's just called mariana."
165	Brian: "In the city where he (Max) probably met Al Finlay."
166	Jim: "If we don't tell Sgt. Molinson about the mari**ana, and later on he finds out that we knew about it, he could arrest us for withholding evidence." Mart: "We'd have to change the Bob-White whistle to the jailbird whistle."
169	Mrs. Hartman: "Ethel had a phone call from a realty company saying that they had a buyer for her place."
170	They heard the phone ring in the cottage. Brian: "Whoever it is, is awfully anxious. I've counted fifteen rings."
171	Jim: "That stuff was too green to burn without some help. Gasoline was poured on it."
174	Dan: "You crazy kids! You've been smoking mari**ana!" "No!" Dan: "Don't lie to me. I know the smell of it. I can smell it on you."
175	Dan: "I'm sorry. I should have realized I know you guys well enough to know you wouldn't try anything so dumb."
177	Sgt. Molinson's car squealed into the driveway. "I might as well tell you that Max already has a police record."
178	Sgt. Molinson: "You do realize that you'll probably have to testify against him?" If it goes to trial, you'll have no choice. It's part of the 'job,' Miss Detective."
180	Mrs. Belden: "Let's have some of that enthusiasm back." Trixie: "It's gone, Moms. I'm not so sure now that Honey and I should even plan on being detectives."
181	Trixie: "I don't want to create problems for people."
182	Mr. Belden: "I had an inquiry from the local Social Security office this morning. They had information that Mrs. Elliot was earning too much money."
187	Brian: "Runs like a dream since Tom tuned it up." I guess Brian not only doesn't know plants, but he also doesn't know how to work on cars anymore.
191	Mr. Hartman: (talks on the phone)This is Mr. Wilson of the Social Security Administration. "She (Ann Rinehart) did know that Manton pays Ethel in cash - twenty or thirty dollars. In the ledger a zero has been added to make it look like she'd been paid two or three hundred."
196	Mrs. Elliot: "The man from the seed company indicated that the vines could be worth a great deal of money."
197	Mrs. Elliot: "Sam was a genius with plants. He was always experimenting and keeping notes."
199	A long white envelope slipped out. To be opened after my death. Sam Elliot. Not to be opened in the presence of my wife.
200	I'm requesting that whoever finds this will see that Ethel gains from the legacy enclosed. But please do not reveal to her the other information herein.
201	Max: "I made some so-called friends."
202	Max: "I was mixed up in a robbery. Al Finlay came to see me. He'd heard about me from one of my cell mates. He wanted me to get possession of this place and grow mari**ana and other drugs for him."
204	Trixie: "Your father knew you ran away to the city because you discovered that he was raising and selling drugs to Al Finlay."
208	At that moment, Brian's old jalopy pulled into the driveway, and shot a loud backfire. Finley jumped, releasing Trixie.