Read Online The Mystery of the Headless Horseman by Julie Campbell - Free Book Online Page A

“Even now,” she said, “I can’t really believe it happened. As for the door being bolted from the outside—well, are you sure it was? I mean, dear, you had just had that scare with Henry. Maybe you were still feeling—forgive me—a little panicky. Maybe you just thought it was bolted.”
    “No,” Honey said slowly, “it was bolted, all right. I saw it, too, and I wasn’t panicky.”
    “Your spare key to the front door is missing, too,” Trixie said. “Honey looked for it everywhere.”
    Polly Ward said, “You know what I think, Rose? I think it was all done by that same dreadful person who played that stupid practical joke on you yesterday.”
    Trixie looked at her sharply. “What practical joke?”
    Rose Crandall sighed. “Someone—I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman—called me on the telephone early yesterday evening,” she said. “The message I received was not kind. It was not kind at all.”
    “What Rose is trying to say,” Polly Ward explained, “is that someone called her and said I had been taken seriously ill. They said I had been rushed to Croton Hospital. Can you believe it? Well, what would you do in a situation like that? Rose and I are very fond of each other.” She leaned forward and patted her sister’s hand. “So, of course, she came at once.”
    Trixie’s voice was low. “What happened next?”
    “I didn’t stop for anything,” Mrs. Crandall said. “I jumped into my car immediately and drove to Croton-on-Hudson just as fast as I could get there.” Her brown eyes filled with tears. “I arrived at the hospital and hurried inside. You can imagine how I felt!”
    “Of course,” Polly Ward continued with the story, “no one at the hospital knew anything about me or about any telephone call. If you ask me, Rose, I still think you should have reported the whole incident to the police.”
    “From the hospital,” Mrs. Crandall said, “I drove immediately to Polly’s house. And there she was, as fit and as well as ever.” She smiled fondly at her sister. “As for calling the police, I couldn’t see that it would solve anything. I can’t think who would have done such a deliberately cruel thing. I’d prefer to forget it. It’s just as I told Polly last night: It was someone’s idea of a joke.”
    While Rose Crandall was talking, Henry leaped onto Trixie’s lap and collapsed in a warm heap. Trixie stroked his soft head and tickled him under his chin. She was promptly rewarded by a very loud and contented purr.
    “Poor old Henry,” Mrs. Ward said, watching him. “He must have wondered what was going on. Rose left the house so fast yesterday that she forgot to leave him any supper.”
    Trixie’s fingers stopped tickling. “So she called Harrison from Croton last night?”
    Honey gasped. “Harrison’s mysterious phone call!”
    Mrs. Crandall laughed.
    “Yes,” she said, “I called him. Polly invited me to spend the night. Her husband’s away for a few days on a business trip. I was still very upset, so I was glad to accept. But I had to make some arrangement about Henry, you see—even if he is sometimes a bad cat.”
    “Bad cat?” Honey said, laughing. “He doesn’t look bad to me.”
    Henry purred louder than ever.
    “Ah,” Mrs. Crandall said, “but sometimes looks are deceiving. You see, he knocked over a large bottle of lavender cologne upstairs in my bedroom.”
    “So that was it!” Trixie leaned down to Henry’s ear and said, “You rascal!”
    Henry merely settled himself more comfortably on her lap.
    “Because I wasn’t here last night,” went on
    Mrs. Crandall, “I think Henry made himself at home on my bed.”
    “While Harrison had to make do with a cold cellar,” Honey added.
    Mrs. Crandall looked down at her hands. “Yes,” she said, “and I am very sorry indeed to have caused him so much trouble. He has been a very good friend to me this past year. There have been times when I don’t know what I’d have done without