This time, our young detective quartet are at a kids mini-marathon. Older twins Nan and Bert are competing. The race is for charity, and it was Nan's idea to hold it. The heavy hitters of the city (Mayor Childress, wife of city Counselman Cox, director of Lakeport cultural affairs Harrison Potter, and armoured car securities owner Jackson Winters) are heavily involved with the contest, so there is quite a turnout.
Bert and Nan are in the top 10 racers (i like how they don't come in first on EVERYTHING they compete in), and so are up on stage when the donation box with the charity money is opened. GASP! Shock! The box is only filled with strips of newspaper, and the money is nowhere to be found!
Each of the "heavy hitters" have had the money box in their possession, and only they have had it by themselves, so they are naturally the suspects the Bobbseys investigate. For various reasons, each twin suspects a different one of the suspects, so they separate to investigate their quarries (except Flossie, who gets Bert to help her tail Mrs Cox). There are several misadventures the twins experience when doing their detective work:
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| Freddie is in trouble! |
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| Looking for clues |
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| Nan does a bit of snooping |
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| Confronting a suspect! |
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| That is REALLY inconspicuous guys! |
What it boils down to is this, each suspect has semi-suspicious behaviour, and they all handled the box. First, Mrs. Cox delivered the box to Mr. Potter's office (where the people could visit and put donations in special envelopes-which to me clears Mrs Cox, since when she had it there was no money in the box yet). From there, that morning, the box is given to Mr Winters, who drives the armoured truck, while his employee, Hank is in the back with the money box, and from there the box is given to the mayor who has it during the race, and then opened it.
The councilman's wife when followed was buying expensive furs (i hope they're faux firs, right?) and clothes with cash! She spent $15,000 on clothes (and remember this is the '80s,. so it's probably about $30k adjusted for inflation) making her seem, at least unusual. (Turns out her family lost a bit of their fortune when one of their banks failed during the stock market crash of '29, so they always use cash).
Mr. Potter has a sickly aunt, so not only was he not in town immediately after the theft, but he needs money to pay for her hospital bills (turns out he sold some of his stocks to cover it)
Mr. Winters was suspected of stealing money during a theft of his armoured truck several years ago (it was suspected that he set it up, but it was a baseless accusation)
After all of the suspects are cleared, the Bobbseys come up empty and short on ideas. So, they decide to reenact the crime and see if they can discover where the theft could have occurred.
They figure out that the villian was Hank, the employee of Mr Winters. He had an identical donation box that he made, and whilst the armoured truck was in transit, he took the flattened box from underneath the carpet, sealed it, ripped open the genuine box and stole the money.
The twins call Lt. Pike of the police who reluctantly goes with them to confront Hank at the armoured truck office, and browbeat and trick him into confessing.
Ok, i don't think i gave as comprehensive or coherent a synopsis of this book as i did the last one, so if it sounds confusing, it's my description and not the story. I actually really liked this one as a kid. The twins really have to use their little grey cells to figure out the case, and on the way, they encounter enough danger (i didn't tell you how Freddie came to be menaced by a mean dog-you'll have to read the book!) to make things exciting, yet not too intense for young readers. I also like how this book shows that the rich of Lakeport each have certain idiosyncrasies that make them seem queer and suspicious, so each suspect honestly seems guilty and keeps you guessing until the end. Yet, the reveal doesn't come out of the blue-clues are scattered throughout the book so you can pick up on who the real villian is.
Well, that about covers book #2. See you next time!
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