The Case of the Vanishing Boy Read Free Page A

in his life. Then he thought, No, I’ve been in a worse spot than this. Much worse. A thousand times worse. But where?
    His memory carried him back only to the Glendale station. Ginny said he’d been running, but he was unable to recall that part of it. Instead his mind leaped on to their arrival at the Westlake station, and he had a sharp vision of the two determined policemen crossing the platform to the train. He hadn’t the least doubt now that they’d been looking for him.
    But how had they known that Jan Riggs—if that was his name—would be on that particular train? He hadn’t known it himself until a minute or two before he went on board.
    Of course, someone could have spotted him at the Glendale station and told the police, and it would have taken only a quick phone call to tell the Westlake police to be on the watch for him. But that sounded too easy. And what of the men in white jackets by the van? His capture must be very important to somebody, to judge by all the effort being made to find him.
    Suddenly his wet clothing felt icy and he began to shake with a chill. It was a dreadful feeling, made all the worse by the knowledge that there was something frightening in his life that was beyond his power to remember.
    The headlights of a car swept through the rain and touched the front of the shed. They wavered on the unevenness of the road, then steadied and came directly for the shed’s square opening. Jan stared at them, knowing all at once how it felt to be a trapped animal. The car stopped, and abruptly he leaped to his feet and darted behind one of the pieces of machinery.
    Someone got out of the car, and he was astounded to hear a familiar voice call his name. It was Ginny.
    â€œJan!” she repeated. “Jan! I know you are here. Please come out—Pops and I have come to take you home!”
    It was like a sequence in a dream. He hardly believed it, even when he stumbled from the shed, teeth chattering so that he could not speak, and glimpsed her in a rain cape with the car lights behind her. He was so glad to see her he almost cried. Then in the next breath a tall elderly man was throwing a blanket about him and helping him into the rear of the car, where a small boy sat watching owlishly.
    They were well away from the shed before Jan managed to stammer, “How—how d-did you ever find me?”
    â€œPromise you won’t tell,” said Ginny.
    â€œI p-promise.”
    She gave a happy little laugh. “We’d have found you sooner, only we had to go home first and get Otis. Otis can find anything.”

3
    WANTED
    The car swung past a shopping area at the edge of town, stopped briefly at a traffic light, then started cautiously down a sloping residential street where torrents of rainwater overflowed the gutters. The rain had almost stopped. Jan, peering through the car window, was startled to see a building on his left that seemed vaguely familiar.
    Suddenly the truth hit him. “Hey,” he burst out. “I was here earlier this evening—at that church we just passed. I was talking to Father Dancy when Sergeant Bricker came, and—and I had to run. But I heard enough to learn I was a wanted criminal.”
    Heron Rhodes, who had hardly spoken except for a mumble or a grunt, pulled the car to the curb and braked it.
    Now he said, “If you were a criminal, son, you wouldn’t be confessing it quite so soon, and anyhow Ginny would have known it. You’d be surprised how far off she can spot a phony or a rat. Er, did you find out why you were wanted?”
    â€œNo, sir.”
    â€œHm. Tell me everything you said to Father Dancy, and everything you heard Bricker say about you.”
    Jan had no trouble repeating every word of it, for it would have been impossible to forget it.
    Heron Rhodes grunted. “After you learned where we lived, why in double tarnation did you run off in the opposite direction and