NOTE FROM AUTHOR: Wow! There are 30 reviews already? I didn't know how many people would like this story, but I'm very glad to see so many readers enjoying it. This mystery is coming to a climax in less than four chapters. Now the pace will be a little quicker, since I think I've been dragging the story on for too long. Enjoy the latest update!

12

Trick and Treat

The Dilworths entered the cabin. Mrs. Dilworth looked around. Then, she picked up the fishing rod from the floor.

"I have the fishing rod, John," she said, showing her husband the fishing rod. "Hm?" The middle-aged lady turned around. "I could swear I heard something inside this cabin when I turned the lock."

Nancy felt herself gasping quietly. Don't find us! she pleaded silently. Whatever you do, don't—!

"Probably a squirrel climbing up a tree or something," John Dilworth said bluntly. "Now we'd better get back. I need to attend a meeting in two hours."

"Oh, sure, sure. I'll get the car started."

The couple exited the cabin through the door they came in from. As the door closed, Nancy let out the breath she was holding for a long minute. The detectives grinned, then got out of their hiding spot.

Where were they hiding?

"We have to hide somewhere," Nancy had said, looking around desperately. It was just a few minutes ago, when the three sleuths were in the cabin, the key turned slowly.

"I know!" Frank had whispered, opening the secret compartment using the fishing rod. "We can hide here."

The compartment was barely big enough to fit three people. The detectives did not hesitate. They slipped into the compartment and closed the door. Nancy, fearing that the compartment would not open from the inside, left a small space between the closet and the door.

"Now we can take this vase to the police. Those couple would have no logical explanation except for their stealing the vase so they can get the insurance money!" Joe said excitedly.

"No, Joe," Frank said.

Nancy agreed. "We can't do that. We searched the cabin without having a search warrant. Any evidence we gathered cannot be counted against them unless we have a search warrant first."

"But how can we prove it?"

Frank was thinking about it. "I think we can make them confess," he finally said.

"Confess?"

Nancy and Joe both said it out loud. They couldn't believe it. How would Frank make two criminals confess?

"I know that look!" Frank said, rolling his eyes. "You are probably wondering what am I thinking. Well, my plan is to make them confess, but not forcing them to do so. We can trick them to do it!"

Nancy looked confused. "Trick them?"

"Yeah. We can record their confession on tape. That can be counted as a ticket to getting a search warrant in the police department."

"But…" Joe interrupted. "How do we do that?"

Getting into the car, Frank motioned Joe and Nancy to come in. "We'll go to their house. Does anyone have a tape recorder?"

"I do!" Nancy said. "It's in the Higgins' house. I brought it to listen to some of my favorite tapes."

"Great! Let's go."

The dark-haired detective started the car immediately. During the long drive, the detectives talked about the four mysteries.

"Do you think it was they who sabotaged the theater, knocked out my dad, and kidnapped Bess and George?" Nancy asked the Hardys.

"I don't think they did it," Frank said, his eyes fixed on the road. "Even if they were involved in a fraud, I don't think they were involved in a sabotage or kidnapping. Besides…"

"…George could have knocked them down easily!" Joe interrupted. "She knows karate, right, Nancy?"

Nancy nodded. "I think she had a brown belt. But I'm not so sure about Bess. I don't think she took any martial arts class."

"Anyway," Joe said, getting back on the topic, "if they were the kidnapper, then they must have hidden Bess and George in the cabin, along with that vase. But the cabin was empty. That explains that they did not kidnap them, unless there were other secret compartment in that cabin."

"But," Nancy said, "what about their mansion? They could have a few knick-knacks in their mansion."

"Not possible," Frank mentioned, shaking his head. "If there was a hidden passageway in there, the police would have surely found it when they went and investigated the couple's house."

"Then that leaves only one thing," Joe said. "They didn't kidnap Bess and George, hit Mr. Drew on the head, or sabotaged the theater."

"How do you know that?" Nancy was again perplexed.

Frank was the one who answered. "If they didn't kidnap George, then they didn't know that there was a secret passageway in the pillar. If they didn't know about the pillar, then they couldn't have sabotaged the stage. And if they didn't sabotaged the stage…"

"…Then they didn't hit Mr. Drew on the head," Joe said, ending Frank's string of logic. "But then, who did?"

"My bet's on the guy who calls himself Kendall," Frank said. "I have a feeling he's involved in this somehow. I just don't think he is your ordinary fan, Nancy."

Nancy frowned. "He sure is creepy! I have no idea who he is. I never met him before."

"But you've solved nearly sixty mysteries!" Joe said. "How can you remember all of the suspects?"

"Oh, and I suppose you do?" Nancy asked back.

"Uh…well…I do remember some of those cute girls I met…"

Frank laughed out loud. "You'd better stop there, Joe, or I'll tell Iola."

"Hey! You can't do that! You know she get really mad when I mention the words 'cute girls'!"

Nancy sighed. "Hey, you guys, there is the exit sign."

"The what!" Frank turned around to see it, but it was too late. They already passed the exit to New York City. "Darn! I have to go to the next exit and turn around. Thanks a lot, Joe!"

"What? You can't blame me! You are the driver!"

"Guys!" Nancy interrupted. "Stop being so childish."

The detectives arrived at Higgins' house at exactly two o'clock. Nancy went to the porch and knocked on the door. "Hello?" she called. A few seconds later, a middle-aged woman with dark hair appeared from inside the kitchen. It was Mrs. Higgins.

"Hello, Nancy. How is the investigation coming along?"

"Great, Mrs. Higgins. I just need to get something from my room."

"Okay, dear. I'll be in the kitchen baking pie if you need me."

Nancy hurried to her room. She took the tape recorder from her suitcase and turned it on. "Hello? Hello? Testing-testing."

Nancy then rewound it and played it. Her voice she heard sounded fine. "Okay, it's working." After putting the tape recorder into her pocket, she dashed to the car, where the Hardys were waiting patiently.

Frank knocked on the door of the Dilworths' house. Just as he did so, Nancy turned her tape recorder on. About thirty seconds later, a man appeared from inside and opened the door. He had a puzzled look on his face. "You are…the detectives?" he asked.

Joe smiled and nodded. "We came here to talk to you about the stolen vase."

An awkward look appeared on Mr. Dilworth's skinny face for one moment. In a second, it was gone. He smiled a forced smile. "Well, did you find who stole our vase?"

"Yes," Frank answered. "And we also found the vase."

Joe entered the room. "Here it is, the precious vase! The only one in the world!"

Nancy looked at him. She was for a moment startled. Joe wasn't supposed to take the vase, and she doesn't remember his bringing in the vase. He carried into the room a vase wrapped in towel.

The Dilworths' expression changed in a second. Mrs. Dilworth was sputtering, "Where…? Where…?"

Frank grinned. "You know where we found it."

"But…how? How did you find it? We were sure we hid it in a place nobody would notice!" Mrs. Dilworth sputtered.

Nancy stopped the tape recorder and smiled. "That's all the evidence we need."

"Evidence?" The Dilworths' voices showed their surprise. They finally realized that this was just a trap.

"That's right. We were tricking you to confess to your crimes," Frank said. "And we got the tape of your confession right here. Now we have the evidence to get a search warrant."

"Search warrant? But didn't you already search our cabin?"

"Nope." Joe took the towel off the vase he was holding. When the others saw the vase they immediately knew that it wasn't the Vase of Norma. It was a vase that had the same shape as the stolen vase. "This is the vase I found in the house next to the front door. I took the flowers that were in it and put them into another vase. Then, I took this towel I had and covered it. As you can see, this vase looks like the stolen vase when its patterns aren't present."

Mrs. Dilworth sank down on the sofa behind her. Mr. Dilworth just stood there with a menacing look on his face. It also showed defeat.

"Why did you pretend that your vase was stolen?" Nancy asked.

"Why did we bother?" Mrs. Dilworth sneered. "You want to know why we even bothered to do this? Do you think we enjoyed this? Do you think we wanted the girl who didn't have anything to do with this to suffer? Do you think we wanted her to be caught?"

"We didn't have enough money, that's what!" Mr. Dilworth said, interrupting his wife. He seemed infuriated. "My business got into turmoil and I have tons of debt! The stocks I had didn't even pay a tenth of my debt!"

"We had to do something to get out," Mrs. Dilworth said. "We had to do something to pay off the two million dollars of debt."

"Then why didn't you sell the other jewels?" Nancy asked.

"We already did!" Mr. Dilworth said in anger. "All the jewelry you see upstairs is fake! They have been sold but they were not enough. This vase is the last one."

Frank then asked. "But did you kidnap Bess and George? Bess has blonde hair and George is a brunette."

"What?" The Dilworths looked at each other. "They were kidnapped? We didn't kidnap them, honestly! We just wanted some money to pay off the debt, but we don't intend on kidnapping them."

Joe grinned. "Now that they confessed, I think we should call the police."

Mr. Dilworth snarled. "Not if I can help it!"

The detectives looked at him, but he already ran to the fireplace and grabbed an iron rod that leaned against the fireplace.

"My plan wasn't to go to jail!"

Mrs. Dilworth shrieked. "What are you doing, John? We weren't supposed to kill anybody! Let's just go before—"

Mr. Dilworth did not listen. "I'm pretty experienced with throwing a spear when I was your age." A strange sneer came across his face. "Now you'll regret ever making me angry!"

Frank and Joe dashed toward the man as fast as they could. But with that sentence, he threw the iron rod that was still red with heat straight at Joe, who was less than two yards away!