Notes for #35 The Mystery of the Memorial Day Fire © 1984
| Page # |
Quote |
| 10 |
Both of the girls loved to decipher
Mart's inflated sentences, to show him he wasn't the only smart one
in their group. Honey: "The Sleepyside-on-the-Hudson Memorial
Day Torchlight Parade is always the same, every single year." |
| 11 |
Dan Mangan, too, had once been at the
mercy of a mean stepfather. Instead
of running away. Dan had gotten involved with a street gang in New
York City, where he lived. |
| 12 |
Her (Di) life had changed when her
father suddenly made a lot of money. Her (Honey) father was a hard-working
businessman who traveled a lot. Her mother was loving but not very
strong. |
| 15 |
Honey: "I can't imagine any piece of
sculpture or pottery more beautiful than the drawing Nick did of
the Manor House." Trixie: "The drawing of Crabapple Farm is just
as beautiful. Moms loved it when I gave her the drawing for Mother's
Day." |
| 16 |
All the Bob-Whites knew about the special
feelings that Jim and Trixie had for one another, even though Trixie
denied it and both of the young people tried not to show it. Trixie: "Look
the woman he's (Nick) standing next to must be his mother. That means
her health has improved." Jim: "I've heard
his father's business has improved, too. Mr. Roberts is a master
engraver and he was trying
to get by with trophies and plaques and things that needed engraving.
Now he's added caps and T-shirts, which are more in demand." A dark,
heavy-set man joined Nick and his mother. |
| 19 |
"I'm Jane Dix-Strauss, reporter
for the Sleepyside Sun." Jane Dix-Strauss was small - not much taller
than Trixie and almost as slender as Honey. Her hair was dark and
curly. She wore large-framed glasses. |
| 22 |
The band stopped right in front of
Trixie and her friends to do a close-order drill. A motorcycle drill
team moved forward. |
| 24 |
Somewhere off Main Street, something
had just exploded! |
| 27 |
Sleepyside's only fire station was
on the opposite side of Main Street from the fire. |
| 31 |
Dan: "Mr. Maypenny
won't know about the fire unless it's written up in next years Farmer's
Almanac." |
| 32 |
Mr. Maypenny was the gamekeeper for
the Wheeler game preserve whose tiny, rustic cabin had no radio or
television. Mr. Maypenny thought newspapers and magazines caused
people unnecessary worry. |
| 36 |
Radio Announcer: "The
blast took place at eight P.M., just as the Torchlight Parade was
near its midpoint. The parade was the one hundred seventeenth annual
event, and the first ever to fail to reach its natural conclusion.
... no word yet on the cause of the explosion, which originated in
the four-hundred block of West Second Street. It is known that the
two buildings were a store and a warehouse." |
| 38 |
Trixie: "Four thirty-one West Second
Street. That's the address of Nick Roberts's father's shop!" |
| 42 |
Brian: "I heard on the radio that the
site of the explosion was the Roberts Trophy Shop. In the basement
of that store. The store is badly damaged and so is the warehouse
next to it." |
| 43 |
Trixie: "I'd forgotten about the clubhouse!
Today's the day we're all supposed to meet there, to see how it got
through the winter and decide what repairs it needs this summer!" |
| 45 |
Each year they tried to make a few
repairs or improvements that would make the clubhouse more useful
and comfortable than it had been the year before. The problem, though,
was that everyone had a different idea of how the limited time and
money should be spent. |
| 46 |
- At the spring meeting, the Bob-Whites
decided whose ideas they'd turn into action.
- Di's two sets of twin
brothers and sisters kept her busy as well, even though each
set of twins had a private nurse.
|
| 47 |
Dan: "All of the windowpanes need reputtying."
Brian: "The paint job is bad. It protects the wood, too, which means
we'll have even worse problems if we don't get the clubhouse painted
this summer." Jim: "I thought we'd built enough shelves in there
to store everything we'd ever own, but they're already full. We'll
have to add more." |
| 54 |
It was true that Honey had once had
problems with her grades, as had Trixie. But the general enthusiasm
of the Bob-Whites seemed to have infected even the girls' schoolwork.
Now, while they weren't exactly scholars, their grades were much
better than they had been. |
| 56 |
Brian: "The fire marshal says that
the fire was deliberately set in the basement of Mr. Roberts's store." |
| 57 |
Brian: "Apparently the arsonist poured
a lot of flammable liquid, like gasoline, in six different places.
He must have taken his time, and while he was taking his time, the
liquid was evaporating. When the arsonist finally lit the fire, there
wasn't much liquid to burn - but there was a lot of vapor to explode." |
| 60 |
Trixie's head jerked up so fast that
her curls had to hurry to catch up. |
| 61 |
Nick: "They've arrested my father!" |
| 64 |
Mr. Belden: Pat Murphy,
a fine attorney who's interested in justice and the law.
Pat Murphy is headed over to the jail now. The first concern is to
find out whether Mr. Roberts
has been, or is going to be charged. Then Pat will see about arranging
bail." |
| 66 |
Nick: The first idea
we had that my father might be a suspect came last night. That's
when we got a phone
call from Mr. Slettom. He was our landlord at the store. He owned
both of the buildings that burned, in fact." |
| 67 |
Nick: Mr. Slettom said that the police
had been questioning him." Brian: "What kinds of questions did the
police ask?" Nick: "They asked if my father had ever indicated he'd
like to get out of the lease. Mr. Slettom had to tell them that my
father had asked just a couple of months ago if the lease could be
broken. Business had gotten a lot better lately and we really needed
more room and wanted a better location." |
| 70 |
Trixie looked in the direction of the
noise and saw Sgt. Molinson walking toward them. He was being pursued
by an attractive, middle-aged woman who was wearing a tweed suit. |
| 71 |
Pat Murphy: "I'll tell you why you
arrested Nicholas Roberts. It wasn't because of motive. It was because
of media." |
| 72 |
Pat Murphy: "With
her (Jane) getting the populace all riled up, you chose the easiest
way to get them calmed down -
and that was to arrest an innocent man!" Sgt. Molinson: "I
can hold Roberts for forty-eight hours for questioning without pressing
charges." |
| 75 |
Pat Murphy: "I have no comment to make
to you (Jane). What's more, it will be a cold day in June before
I do have one." |
| 76 |
Brian: "I don't think he's (Nick) calm
at all. He's just quiet. I bet there's plenty of hurt under the surface.
I worry more about people like that than I do about the ones who
let go and show they're upset." |
| 80 |
It was a gold button, the kind with
a raised monogram on it. JSD. Absentmindedly she (Trixie) put the
button in the pocket of her jacket. |
| 82 |
It was almost impossible to concentrate
on what Mr. Slettom looked like, because the loud, red-and-green-plaid
sports coat he wore was so over-powering. His round face looked even
rounder because he was almost entirely bald, with just a fringe of
pale blond hair that ringed the back of his head. |
| 89 |
Trixie: "Jane Dix-Strauss!
I'll bet this button belongs to her. She has a blazer with gold buttons
about
this size. She was wearing it the night of the fire. I found this
gold button with her initials on it at the scene of the fire. |
| 91 |
- As always, she (Trixie) paused to admire
the painting her mother had done years before, of a tree-lined stream
in winter.
- Trixie took down a load of dry clothes from the line.
|
| 94 |
Nick: "We have lots of inventory in
the basement of our house. It's all paid for, and we have enough
in savings to buy new equipment. We could rent a new store or work
out of the house." |
| 97 |
Trixie clenched her hands an jumped
up and down. She was afraid that speaking the first word might be
like pulling a plug, letting the words pour out in a torrent she
couldn't control. Trixie: "What he (Mr. Roberts)
needs is the strength to keep going. We Bob-Whites don't have any
trouble keeping going, but we do have money problems. We can sell
T-shirts and caps to every softball and baseball team in Sleepyside.
We'll get a commission on all our sales." |
| 103 |
The slender boy (Nick) smiled appreciatively
at Trixie. |
| 112 |
Since Mart's junior drivers license
permitted him to drive only when accompanied by an adult, Mart and
Trixie had to use their bicycle. |
| 114 |
Mart: "That is salesmanship. A worthy
career and, an its best, an art." |
| 115 |
"Anatomy of Arson" by Jane Dix-Strauss.
(magazine article) |
| 117 |
Trixie: "Look - Jane
Dix-Strauss wrote this article that was published in a big national
magazine two years ago.
Now she comes to work at the dinky little Sleepyside Sun.
Why the big comedown? then, even though there's never been a case
of arson in town, weeks after she comes to work here, there is one!" |
| 119 |
Honey: "You can't think Jane Dix-Strauss
set those fires herself, just to give herself something to write
about." |
| 120 |
- Brian made the first sale. The camp
where he and Mart had worked as summer counselors ordered two hundred
shirts.
- Jim: "The Big Wheels ordered thirty shirts with matching hats."
Trixie: "Who are the Big Wheels?" Jim: "Matthew Wheeler's Big Wheels
- get the joke?"
|
| 121 |
Jim: "They're the softball team my
father sponsors." |
| 123 |
Trixie: "I got my first sale. Bruce
Becker at Dad's bank. He's captain of their softball team." |
| 124 |
Trixie: "Part of it is that we timed
it just about right. All the sports teams are just starting up, and
they've just noticed how crummy their uniforms look." |
| 129 |
The Sleepyside Bankers (Bruce Becker's
team) beat the opposing team easily. |
| 136 |
Trixie: "I came around the corner,
and I froze because I saw two people standing there. One of them
was this enormous man. The other person was smaller. And female." |
| 137 |
Honey: "Jane Dix-Strauss?" Trixie: "She reached into her blazer pocket, and she took out an envelope,
and she handed it to the man, and he put it into his pocket!" |
| 138 |
Trixie: "I think she was paying off
the arsonist." |
| 141 |
Honey: "If you came up with a theory
that the sky was blue, Mart would demand more proof." |
| 145 |
Radio Announcer: "The fire is thought
to have started at around seven-thirty A.M., when the store was unoccupied.
... a complete loss, according to Mr. James D. Slettom, owner of
the appliance store." |
| 148 |
- The fire had quickly been labeled arson
by the investigators. As they had reconstructed the crime, someone
had broken into the store by the back door, scattered the store's
records around the office, and set them on fire.
- Radio Announcer: "Mr. Nicholas Roberts was seen
in the vicinity of the Slettom Appliance Store early this morning.
He was called
by Slettom's secretary and asked to come to the appliance store
before business hours, he says. He claims she told him that he
had to sign a paper canceling his lease. Mr. Slettom and his secretary
deny having called Roberts or having requested a meeting."
|
| 149 |
Brian: "That was one of T-shirt customers.
He called to cancel an order for twenty-five shirts. He doesn't want
to do business with an arsonist." |
| 161 |
- Trixie: With all those servants, a
squeaky door doesn't stand a chance at the Manor House.
- Just inside was the tack room, which ran the full width of the
stable. It was a separate room, with a door that led back into
the stalls where the horses were kept.
|
| 162 |
There was a small closet in the tack
room which was used for Regan's leather repair and carpentry tools.
She (Trixie) yanked the door open and reached for the light switch
just to the left. |
| 163 |
Jane: "Mr. Roberts isn't the arsonist.
I've known that from the beginning." |
| 165 |
Jane: "Stay out of sight until I tell
you (Trixie) otherwise. I'm trying to get evidence that will stand
up in court. I know what that evidence is and you don't." |
| 167 |
Jane: "You wanted
Mr. Roberts suspected just enough so they couldn't suspect you, isn't
that it?" Mr. Slettom: "I couldn't
let him be arrested or have to stand trial. I was afraid I might
have to confess to having set those fires myself." |
| 168 |
Jane: "You'd cast a little suspicion
on me, the way you already had on Mr. Roberts. It would take the
heat off him, without getting me into serious trouble." |
| 169 |
Mr. Slettom: I"d just say I'm not going
to save you, once the fire starts. Nicholas Roberts has a family
that needs him. So do I. You don't. All you've got is your work and
somebody else will take your place there." |
| 180 |
Jane: "The real purpose of the arson
was to burn the building next door, which was used as a warehouse
by Mr. Slettom. I suspect, Sgt. Molinson, that if you can find any
records that weren't destroyed during the second fire, you'll see
that Mr. Slettom claimed to have a huge inventory of new appliances
stored in that warehouse." Sgt. Molinson: "But they weren't new appliances?"
Jane: "No. They were old ones, nearly worthless." |
| 181 |
Jane: "The building blew up instead
of burning down. The point of the second fire wasn't to burn appliances.
It was to burn records." |
| 182 |
Brian: "He had to come up with some
excuse for not having records of the warehouse inventory at all." |
| 183 |
Jane: "I really don't go in for anything
as flashy as monogrammed buttons." Trixie: "Mr. Slettom goes in for
everything flashy. I should have picked up on that." |
| 184 |
Jane: "He (Slettom) had his secretary
call me tonight. She said she was Honey Wheeler and that she and
Trixie Belden had more proof that I was the arsonist. She said she'd
tell the police unless I came to the stable to talk it over." |
| 185 |
Trixie: "Anyone who's had anything
to do with you would know you'd show up after a phone call like that.
If you were suspicious, you'd be even more likely to show up." |
| 186 |
Jane: "The man I was with was a practicing
arsonist, and the envelope I handed him did have money it it. He
was a source that I'd used in my other arson story. I called him
in for an opinion. He confirmed my suspicions, and I paid him for
his - professional expertise." |
| 187 |
Trixie: "You've written stories for
big magazines. How come you're working for a little paper like the
Sun?" Jane: "I like to eat! I finally decided I wanted a little security.
That's why I came here." |
| 188 |
Trixie: "I really hope you'll stay
in Sleepyside." Jane: "I like it pretty well so far. I realize, though,
that there won't always be as much excitement as there's been in
the past month." |
