“Peter did get in touch with them,” Judy told her. “They didn’t lease their estate. They left Stanley to take care of it, and he allowed the gang to move in. Falco must have bribed him or something. I think the Brandts hired Roger Banning, too. He was supposed to repair the fountain.”
“It wasn’t repaired when we were there,” Lorraine remembered.
“I know. Roger was forced to work for the gang, instead. They made him bring his friend along. Dick didn’t know what they were up to at first, but when he found out it was extortion he refused to have any part of it. He told Horace all about it.”
Judy had seen the papers and read her brother’s story, but there were still a few pieces of the puzzle that didn’t fit.
“The police didn’t find the jewels they were looking for,” she continued. “I told Peter they should have looked in the fountain. Lorraine, there is a locked room down under it. The loot from their robberies might be stored there. Peter knows about it now. He’ll get back your ring.”
“I hope he will. Lois said there wasn’t anything you couldn’t solve,” Lorraine remembered, “and I guess that goes for Peter, too. Everybody else knew I was doing wrong before I did. I don’t expect Arthur to forgive me, but if we had the ring back he might unbend a little and stop being so cold and polite all the time.”
“He’s that way because he’s hurt,” Judy explained. “Most men are like that. Girls cry, but men just hold it all in and hurt back, or else they get angry and shout. I think Peter would get angry.”
“I wish Arthur would get angry! I deserve it after all the trouble I’ve caused.”
“Lorraine,” Judy said, taking her hand, “did it ever occur to you that you felt exactly the way Falco intended you to feel? Peter says that’s the way confidence men work, and Falco was a confidence man as well as a jewel thief and an extortioner. Roger Banning, the Cubberlings, and Dick Hartwell were all victims of his vicious lies. He should be behind bars for a long, long time.”
“I guess he will be, but that doesn’t solve my problem. I don’t think there is a solution,” Lorraine declared. “Arthur knows I deceived him. I told him I went to the movies with you the night I met Falco. I even said I was calling from the movies when I was actually calling from the Brandt place. He and Peter had arranged to trace the call. They knew it wasn’t true. Now Arthur will never trust me.”