“Wait till I read the letter,” Irene said. “It’s directed to all four of us.”
Judy’s bewilderment grew as Irene read:
“Dear Irene, Judy, Flo, and Pauline:
Enclosed are four five-dollar bills. Thank you for helping me, a perfect stranger. Do good and gain good, my father always says. Trust people and you will be trusted. Please tell the police and the FBI that I am safe at home and they can stop looking for me. I saw it all in the papers. Dad thinks I ought to give up the idea of a career on TV until I’ve finished high school here in Roulsville. I am sorry I had to leave the theater in such a hurry, but Francine Dow’s aunt mistook me for her. I convinced her of her mistake and went home only to find that my parents were moving. I told you Dad used to be a minister, didn’t I? He doesn’t have a pastorate at present, but hopes to become active in church work. What church do you attend, Judy? I remember hearing you say you lived somewhere in the vicinity of Roulsville. We’ve bought a beautiful home here....”
“I’ll bet they have,” Peter commented, reading over Irene’s shoulder. “Clarence Lawson has enough cash to buy a real beaut—”
“Clarence Lawson!” exclaimed Judy. “What are you saying, Peter? Clarissa’s with her father.”
“So the letter says. But did Clarissa write it?”
“It does sound a little stilted,” Judy admitted. “And I’m not familiar with her handwriting.”
“Well, I am familiar with some of those sayings she attributes to her father. Do good and gain good, for instance. Lawson’s overworked that one. Those were the very words he used when he approached Francine Dow’s husband for a donation. Dow and Francine had quarreled over her comeback on TV, and she’d left him to live with an aunt who had just come east from California.”
“Did you interview the aunt?” asked Dale. “Or aren’t you at liberty to say?”
“I didn’t. I checked with our field office there. The real aunt is still in California. Lawson had found out about her, some way. The ‘aunt’ who called at the stage door and left with Clarissa really did mistake her for Francine Dow. That’s one fact that is straight in the letter.”