“Trixie! You’ll never guess what’s happened while we were gone, not in a million years!” Honey declared. “You’ve got to come up here right away and see! Oh, and bring Brian and Mart, too, because I’m sure that they’ll want to see it as well.”

Only a few minutes earlier, the group had arrived home from their trip to Cobbett’s Island. Trixie had not even made it to her room yet, let alone unpacked. She cast an agonised glance at the pile of luggage still waiting to be dealt with.

“Oh, Honey! I’m not sure if we can.” She looked to each of her older brothers in turn. “Moms has things for us to do, and then it will be time to eat, and then–”

“It will only take a minute,” Honey broke in. “Honestly. And it has to be today, before it gets dark, or you’ll miss it.”

“What’s up?” Brian asked.

“Hold on a sec,” Trixie told Honey. She explained to her gathered parents and siblings, “Honey wants the three of us to go and see something that’s happened while we were gone.”

To her surprise, her mother answered, “That will be fine, Trixie, so long as you don’t stay long. Why don’t you drive up, Brian? That will be quicker.”

“Did you hear that?” Trixie asked Honey. “We’re on our way!”

“I surmise that the parental units were already cognisant of the hitherto unknown development to which we hasten,” Mart noted a couple of minutes later, from his place in the passenger seat of Brian’s car.

“It certainly seemed that way,” Brian agreed. He glanced back at his sister with a smile. “I think that suggests that it’s nothing mysterious.”

“I can’t think what it would be,” Trixie answered, “and Honey told me I’d never guess.”

They pulled up in the Manor House driveway, where Honey awaited.

“Oh, good, you’re here. Come with me, right this minute, otherwise you’ll never believe it.”

They followed her around to the back of the house, where instead of the usual smooth lawn, there now stood a tall temporary fence. The view of the other side had been blocked with shade cloth.

“What gives?” asked Mart, as they walked closer.

“I’m not sure if you knew this,” Honey explained, “but there’s always been a patch of lawn – a kind of rectangular patch – that always needed more water, otherwise it went kind of brown, which always annoyed my Dad, but Mother always just told him to instruct the gardener to water it more so that it wouldn’t do that, which they did, but anyway, yesterday, while our latest gardener was pruning one of the shrubs, he fell off his ladder and something made a terrible noise and the next thing he knows, he’s sinking into the ground.”

“He’s what?” demanded Trixie, as she tried to peek through the gaps in the barrier.

Honey nodded. “He was kind of sinking – look, there’s the place, you can see a big, black hole that opened up right next to him and a kind of hollow where he was lying, and apparently he was yelling like crazy, and everyone came running.”

“I think I’d be yelling, too,” Brian commented, with a shudder. “You wouldn’t know how deep the hole was.”

“I know,” Honey agreed. “So, he climbed out and Miss Trask came and had a look, and you’ll never believe it.” Honey’s eyes were shining. “Underneath, there’s an old swimming pool that’s just been covered over and forgotten. And Daddy thinks it looks in good enough condition to use and he’s going to get someone to come and fix it up for us. Isn’t it exciting?”

Trixie nodded. “I had no idea that was there, and I can’t wait to see more of it.”

“We might see more tomorrow, because there’s someone coming first thing in the morning to lift off all the stuff that’s on top, which is why you needed to come this afternoon, while it’s still like this.”

“I can’t wait to swim in it,” Trixie answered. “Just think: we can have pool parties.”

Honey bounced up and down. “I know. It’s going to be so much fun!”

The next day, workmen came and began the process of reinstating the pool. All of the Bob-Whites came to see some of the work from the vantage point of one of the upstairs windows. Honey’s room and the one next to it had the best views.

“I think it’s going to take a long time to get that back into swimming condition,” Trixie noted, when the entirety of the pool was at last revealed. “But maybe we’ll get to swim in it next summer.”

“It is a little disappointing,” Honey agreed, as the two turned away from the window. “But I’m sure that something else exciting will turn up soon instead.”

Her words were proved true a couple of days later, when Trixie found a mysterious letter in the attic at Crabapple Farm. Before they knew what was happening, the Bob-Whites were on their way to Virginia, in pursuit of an emerald necklace…

Matthew Wheeler glanced at the estate manager, then continued his previous activity of frowning out the window at the workmen in his back garden. “You wanted to see me?” he asked.

Marge Trask cleared her throat. “Yes. Several of the staff have brought concerns to me and, on investigating, I’ve come to believe that someone has been lurking around the outside of the house in a suspicious manner – someone, apparently, unconnected with the work that’s being carried out. As yet, I do not have many more details, but I wanted to bring it to your attention as a matter of priority.”

His frown deepened. “Does this person have a description?”

“He’s been described in a variety of ways, but they amount to him being tall, slightly built, fair-haired and with a pale complexion.” A small, worried line appeared on her brow. “Only two people have seen his face – the two new maids. Emily thought he looked sneaky. Anna said he was handsome.”

“Have you seen him? Even in the distance?”

She shook her head. “No. And neither have Regan or Celia. Winnie, the laundress, saw him through a window and from some way away.”

Their eyes met. “What does she say about him?”

“She immediately thought she knew who it was, but then second-guessed herself and decided she must be mistaken.”

“Dick Blank?” Matthew supplied.

The man had once been their chauffeur, but his time at Manor House had ended in disgrace.

She nodded. “I have no evidence that it’s him. The description fits, of course, but I thought he was still in jail.”

He reached for the phone. “Well, the first thing to do is to find out. And the second is to increase security. Thank you, Marge. I’ll take care of both of those. If you’d warn all of the staff to be on the look-out and to keep the outside doors locked, that would be very good.”

Again, she nodded, and went to do just that.

“I’m just glad Honey and Jim are out of the way,” he muttered to himself, as he waited for his call to be answered. “The last thing I need is a lot of inquisitive teenagers around.”

“Thank you all for coming,” Matthew greeted his staff. “I’m sure you all know what this is about.”

“Is it him?” Regan asked. “Is it Dick?”

His boss waved a hand, palm upwards. “As yet, I don’t know. He’s been released from jail, so it’s possible.”

“Already?” Regan muttered, scowling.

But he didn’t seem to expect an answer, so Matthew went on. “To be sure that we’re all on the same page, I’d like to outline the situation for our newer staff.”

He watched their faces as he described the events surrounding Dapper Dick’s previous stay at Manor House. No one showed any surprise. They must all have been talking about this non-stop since Winnie thought she recognised the man. When he got to the part where Dick attacked Jim, the younger of the two new maids flinched and looked fearful.

“I want you all to know that I’m doing what I can to protect you,” he concluded. “I’m sure that Marge has already explained about making sure the doors are locked and not venturing outside alone. But I’d like to reinforce the importance of following those instructions. If it is Dick Blank, he might very well be out for revenge. Please don’t let yourself be caught in the cross-fire.”

He let them go, then followed Regan out to the stables, only in part because he’d just urged the whole staff not to go outside alone.

“You said something about revenge. You think that’s what he’s after?” the younger man asked, after a pause.

Matt considered for a moment. “I’d say it’s the most likely scenario. I don’t imagine he came here to shake my hand.”

Regan nodded. “What are we going to do when the kids get home?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” He frowned. “In the meantime, I’ve suspended work on the pool. I don’t need extra people around for him to blend in with.”

Again, Regan nodded, then stopped walking. “If you come much further, I’ll need to walk you back to the house,” he pointed out, with a hint of a smile.

“I think we can both look after ourselves,” Matt answered. “But I want you to be careful out here, you hear?”

“Oh, I’ll be careful,” Regan assured him. “And if it is Dick, he’ll be careful to avoid me.”

Matt nodded grimly, and returned to the house. He had a lot to think about.

Over the next few days, the fair-haired man was sighted a number of times in the Manor House grounds, but never by anyone who had known Dick, the one-time chauffeur. Whoever he was, he kept well away from the stables and the kitchen.

As the time loomed for the teenagers’ return, the matter weighed more and more heavily on those responsible for them.

“We should take Honey and Jim to the City,” Madeleine proposed at dinner, the night before they were expected back. “We need to keep them safe, Matthew, and how can we when that terrible man is lurking somewhere nearby?”

“We’d have to take the whole neighbourhood,” he pointed out. “And then what would happen to the staff? I don’t want to just leave them here, either. I don’t know what he’s capable of, or what he’s planning.”

“He’d be less likely to take revenge on them,” she retorted. “Most of them weren’t even here back then.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know that retreat is the best strategy. At least here we’d be sure to spot him; if we were in the City, he could blend in with the crowds.”

She closed her eyes for a moment. “What can we do?”

“I’m going to sit them down as soon as they get home and explain the whole situation,” he told her. “We’ll talk the whole thing through as a family. You might be surprised by the way they respond.”

She shivered delicately. “If you’re sure…”

“I’m doing everything I can.” He smiled. “And who knows? It could all work out for the best. If he’s caught here, he’ll have breached his parole conditions and he’ll be sent back to jail.”

“That would be a very good thing,” she agreed. “I’ll trust your judgement, Matthew. I just hope this is resolved soon. I don’t know that my nerves can take much more of this suspense.”

He nodded. “I hope so, too.”

“What do you think they want to talk about?” Honey wondered, as she and Jim hurried up the stairs to their rooms. “Has something else happened while we were gone?”

Her brother frowned. “It did sound rather serious. But there’s one way to find out, and that’s–”

“Yes, I know,” she broke in. “I need to hurry and get back downstairs.”

They parted, each entering their own bedroom.

Honey set down her bag to be unpacked later, then entered her bathroom to freshen up after the long trip home. Re-entering her bedroom a short time later, she took a quick peek out of the window at the pool, to see whether any noticeable progress had been made while they were gone.

She stopped short. For a moment, her brow creased as she tried to make sense of the scene below. A tall ladder had somehow fallen into the the still-empty pool. There was something else down there; something that looked like…

The next minute, she began to scream, over and over again.

Footsteps thundered up the stairs.

“Honey!” Jim yelled. “Honey!”

She slapped a hand over her mouth and squeezed shut her eyes. But the hand over her mouth stifled her breathing and she had to move it. She began to gasp for breath.

“Honey!” Jim repeated, this time from right in front of her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“It’s horrible.” She pointed to the window, then thought better of it. “Don’t look!”

“What’s horrible?” Jim asked, in a very gentle voice.

Honey noticed that others were joining them. “There’s someone in the pool,” she explained. “And he’s got no head!”

Her father strode across the room and looked down. “Everyone, go down and sit in the library,” he directed. “Marge, collect the staff somewhere and keep them contained. I’ll call the police.”

“What do you mean, he had no head?” Trixie demanded of Honey, the moment she repeated that phrase. “Was there blood everywhere?”

All five of the non-resident Bob-Whites had gathered to support their friends and had been promptly sent to the library by Miss Trask.

“Do we have to discuss this?” Mrs. Wheeler wondered aloud, but her daughter did not seem to hear.

She shook her head. “No. There was no blood; not even a little bit. I couldn’t understand it, at first. It just looked like a pile of old clothes or something, but it had arms and hands, but no head.”

“Weird,” Trixie commented. She turned to Brian. “What could even do that?”

But he didn’t have a good answer and Trixie turned her attention to the body’s identity.

“Who do you think it could have been?”

Honey shuddered. “I haven’t the foggiest idea.”

“You’re the one who saw him,” Trixie pointed out.

Her best friend shook her head again. “How could I recognise him when he didn’t have a head, Trixie?”

“Maybe we should talk about something else,” Jim suggested, casting a meaningful look at Trixie. “Until we have some more to go on, at least.”

Trixie’s face showed her disappointment, but she nodded.

An hour later, Honey’s father entered the library with some news.

“The body has been removed,” he told them, “and I’m happy to say that he actually did have a head. It just couldn’t be seen from that angle when viewed through the upstairs window.”

“Oh!” Honey took a couple of deep breaths. “I’m relieved. I think. No, I am relieved. Kind of. But I don’t think I understand.”

Her father took a deep breath. “The thing that I wanted to discuss with you earlier, before you made this discovery, was that a man had been seen lurking around the house in the last few days.”

Trixie’s eyes widened. “And that’s him? In the pool? Is that what Moms and Dad were going to talk to us about?”

“Hold on just a moment, please,” he urged her. “Let’s take this in order. First, the man was seen lurking. Some of the staff thought they recognised him.”

This time, Trixie’s jaw dropped.

“Just keep that thought to yourself, please, Trixie,” Mr. Wheeler pre-empted. “I take it you’ve guessed who our supposedly headless man is.”

She nodded, pursing her lips. Diana and Honey shared a worried look, while Mart frowned in deep thought. Jim, Brian and Dan shared a glance, too.

“We were concerned that the man might want revenge and so I’ve been taking steps to guard against him.” He frowned. “An alarm went off briefly, earlier today. Someone or something triggered it on one of the upstairs windows, but as we found no one when we immediately looked, we assumed it must have been caused by a bird or animal.”

“Why didn’t you see anything wrong?” Jim wondered. “Surely, there would have been some sign.”

“The ladder had tipped over the fencing around the pool,” Honey deduced. “You might not have seen it from the outside because of the shade cloth. It must have been leaning against my window.”

He nodded. “The police found the marks where it had been.”

“Was it just any window, or was it specifically my window?” she asked.

“That will be up to the police to determine,” he replied. “But I think it was specifically yours.”

“Then it was Dick the Dip, wasn’t it?” she asked. “Dick came to get revenge. And he knew which window was mine. And he climbed up a ladder, but the alarm went off and scared him and he tipped backwards and the ladder kind of… what’s the word?”

“Pivoted,” Brian suggested. “The ladder would pivot on the temporary fencing around the pool and he might land on his head and break his neck. That would allow an unnatural position of the body, which would give the illusion that Honey saw.”

“And the sound of the alarm would also mask the sounds of his fall,” Mart added with a grimace.

“It’s horrible.” Diana shuddered. “Even if he was a criminal, he didn’t deserve that.”

“He brought the whole thing on himself,” Dan pointed out. “He didn’t have to take revenge.”

Honey squeezed her eyes shut, then popped them open again. “I don’t think I’m ever going to forget that sight. And I don’t think I really want the pool, now. Not after this has happened in it.”

Her father nodded. “Yes, I think you’re right, Honey. We didn’t feel the need for a pool before we found it. Why don’t I get it covered over again, once the police are finished. We don’t ever need to talk about it again.”

“Yes.” Honey squared her shoulders. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day. I’m ready to forget that we ever had a pool.”

“I like the lake better, anyway,” Trixie agreed. “And speaking of the lake, I think there’s probably just time to run down there for a quick dip. Who wants to come?”

The seven of them bid goodbye to the Wheelers and headed down to the lake for a swim. And if any of them ever thought about that pool again, they didn’t mention it out loud. Some things are better left unspoken.

The End

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