Return To The Previous Story - The Vanarian House, The House Of Rebecca
Mr. Hoffman started to smile. It was the first time he had smiled since he was recaptured. He had been a notorious jewelry thief. Then he made his mistake. It all started 2 years ago. (See the case of the Drugs at Camp12.) He tried to poison them and force some of the best detective in the country to pay ransom so their kids would get the antidote that they badly needed. However, Greg and Bert found a way to lesson the effects of the poison long enough to get the antidote to themselves and the others. Then he tried to poison a bunch of movie stars, but Greg, Bert, and Julie (especially Greg) stopped him. Then he stole Dr. Commor’s invisible formula. Once again Greg, Burt, and Julie stopped him and Greg found his secret hideout. Of course, Greg told the police. They easily caught him and put him in jail.
One week later he escaped. He robbed jewelry in 7 states. Then he got greedy. (See Detective Greg). He returned to Jesterville 38 days later. He immediately robbed Jeff’s jewelry store. The captured a millionaire and took his place. He called Greg himself to prove his jewelry was stolen, so he collected the insurance money, but it backfired.
He was transferred to Kite County Maximum Security Prison to serve a 15-20 year sentence. He had been there for 21 1/2 months. Greg had been ahead so far, but it was time for Hoffman to get ever. It was time for Hoffman’s revenge.
The next day Greg, Bert, and Julie were in their office as usual. It was 9 o’clock on Saturday. They had been there since 8, as they usually do on Saturday; however, it was going to be a very unusual day. Since there was no case, Greg and Bert got out the chessboard. Greg was very good at chess. His record against Bert was 151-1. The one time Bert beat Greg was known as “miracle of the year”. At least that’s what Bert and Julie said. Julie was smarter. She only played Greg 27 times, when she was totally board to death. She hasn’t beaten him yet. Bert and Julie have a decent record against each other. It is currently 52-47 in Bert’s favor, but let’s get back to the story. Julie was busy watching the old black and white T.V. They had put it in shortly after they started renting the office and had certainly got a great deal of use out of it. A commercial came on and Julie looked at the game.
“It looks like Greg’s going to win again,” she thought.
Greg moved his rook to the corner.
“Check,” challenged Greg.
His own knight blocked the space in front, so he had to use it as a sacrifice. Greg took it. At first Bert was very upset, but then, he saw that his bishop could take Greg’s rook. He did so. Then Greg made his move. Bert fell for his trap. He moved his queen to take the bishop. Bert only had his king left.
“Check,” Greg repeated.
Greg forced Bert in to the corner. To interrupt things, the phone suddenly rang. Greg was the first to answer it.
“Hello,” said Greg in a business like tone of voice.
“Hello,” replied the voice on the other end of the phone. “This is George Wilson, chief of security at Kite County Maximum Security Prison.”
“What can I do for you?” Greg wondered.
“How much do you charge for a case?” asked Wilson.
“That depends on how hard the case is.” Greg explained.
“How about to find out how one of our prisoners escaped?” Wilson told them. “That would be a class-B case."
Greg muttered to himself.
“About 15 dollars.” Then he quickly added, “It goes up to $23.50 starting next week. Inflation’s a killer.”
“Well, I’ll give you 30 dollars if you’ll come over here and solve the case.”
“O.K.!” shouted Greg. “We’re on our way.”
“Oh, yes.” Yelled Wilson as Greg started to hang up. “It’s Hoffman that escaped.”
“Hoffman?!” Greg questioned. Bert and Julie looked up as the name of their archenemy was mentioned over the phone.
“We’ll be there in no time.” Greg assured him.
“Good-bye,” Greg hung up.
Bert and Julie looked at him eager to be informed about who called and what it had to do with Hoffman. Greg turned to them.
“We have a case to solve,” declared Greg. “We are going over to Kite County Maximum Security Prison to find out how Hoffman escaped.”
Julie was almost pleased about it. She had been bored to death. Bert was not so eager to go.
“Can’t we wait ‘til we finish this chess game?” Bert complained.
He knew there was not a chance in the world of his winning, but he actually thought that there was still a chance that it would be a draw. Greg was upset at this, but he finished the game anyway. He did so in only one move.
“Check mate!” Greg cried out. “Now let’s go!”
Bert looked for a few seconds. When he saw Greg was right, he took off after him. While they drove over to Kite County Maximum Security Prison, Greg, Bert, and Julie thought about future things that bothered them. There was only one more week of school left before summer vacation. Julie was on the school track team. Their school did so well that they were invited to a statewide competition. Julie wasn’t exactly one of their better runners and she knew it. She didn’t know how she’d do against that kind of competition. Greg was also on the track team, but that wasn’t what he worried about. He was worried about his exams coming up. Then there was Hoffman. He knew Hoffman was going to try for revenge, but when and where? Bert also knew that last week of school was coming up. The Sunday after that was his birthday. He wasn’t quite ready for 14 quite yet. Then there was that detective camp. It was Bert’s last year. Since he worked with Greg, they’d probably make a comparison. How could he possibly live up to those kinds of expectations? Bert didn’t know. The trip, although it took about 20 minutes, didn’t seem to take that long at all. Wilson met them and took them inside almost as soon as they got there. He took them into his soundproof office and shut the door behind him.
“Now as I was telling you on the phone,” he began. “Mr. Hoffman and 3 others made an escape attempt last night at 2300 hours. That’s also the time we change shifts. We caught one but the others got away. The caught prisoner claims that Mr. Hoffman unlocked his cell and told him to make a run for it.”
Greg was shown everything that they knew about. Greg made a map (see cover).
“Do you have a guard for the storage shed?” asked Greg.
“No.” Wilson replied surprised about the question. “No, we don’t.”
"It is obvious that after Mr. Hoffman escaped he let someone else escape to distract the guard so he could break into the storage shed.” Greg declared. “From there it was easy to get the tools he needed to escape.”
“But why the cell on the corner?” wondered Julie. “Why not the first cell they came to?”
Greg thought about this for a few minutes.
“I’ve got it.” He exclaimed. “Get 2 8 1/2 foot boards and meet me outside.”
Greg dashed out the door. Mr. Wilson looked at Bert and Julie. They just looked at each other. They didn’t know what Greg was up to, but they trusted him and did as he said. Greg was outside waiting for them. He quickly took them to the corner where the hole in the wall was. Greg took the boards from Mr. Wilson.
“As you can see, a ditch 10 feet deep separates me from that hole.” Greg explained. “It has been proven mathematically possible that-“
He put one board diagonally and the other one on the 1st board reaching up to the hole.
“Not exactly the safest thing in the world, but it will serve its purpose,” he added.
Very carefully he walked across the boards and through the hole in the wall. Then just as carefully he returned. Bert and Julie were impressed, but Mr. Wilson was a bit skeptical.
“Mr. Hoffman was on the other side,” he stated. “How could he have gotten it so accurate?”
Bert and Julie were stumped, but Greg had already figured out an idea in his head.
“The same way that he got out of his cell in the first place.” Greg told him. “He must have had outside help.”
Mr. Wilson was shocked.
“I’ll try to find out who helped him,” gasped Wilson. “Thanks for your help. Bye!”
Mr. Wilson gave them $30 as promised. They thanked him for the tip and left. You’d think Greg would be happy after solving a case like this, but on the way back Greg seemed to be worried about something. Julie was first to notice.
“What’s wrong?” she wondered.
“I figured out how Mr. Hoffman escaped,” Greg replied. “But that doesn’t change anything. He is still on the loose, and sooner or later he’s going to try to get revenge. I don’t know where or when. I just know he is. No matter what we do we cannot avoid Hoffman’s revenge.”
Bert and Julie knew what he said was true. They couldn’t avoid Hoffman’s revenge. Nobody else said another word until they got back to their office. The last week of school went by even slower than usual. Even for the last week of school it was slow. They had been assigned to and solved lesser cases, but there was still not a word about Hoffman. Who said silence was golden. Over time they started worrying less and less about Hoffman. By Friday, they were to busy celebrating the last day of school to worry about Hoffman. That Saturday, they didn’t have any calls at all. Greg beat Bert 5 times and Julie twice. Bert and Julie had the very first draw since they started playing chess. The next day was Bert’s birthday. Hoffman had slipped from their minds. That was exactly the way that he had wanted it. Bert’s birthday finally came. Greg closed the office for a day to celebrate the occasion. Everyone Bert knew was there. When he blew out the candles, he wished he could be smarter, more heroic, and better at solving mysteries. In other words more like Greg. Bert got many presents, but his favorite one was from Greg. It was a camera. Greg had remembered that Bert was upset at Christmas time, because he thought he was going to get a camera. Needles to say he didn’t, but this had made up for it. The camera even had film in it. Bert began snapping pictures all over the place. Unknown to them, Hoffman and his 2 henchmen were spying on them. There were too many people around, but the next day would be perfect. The next day, Bert came to the office. He saw 2 people that he recognized. It was Mr. Hoffman’s henchman. They were talking to none another. Bert couldn’t make out what they were saying, but he saw one of them drop a piece of paper on the ground. They slowly walked away. Bert went over to examine the note. It seemed to be some sort of secret code. (See front cover). Bert was so busy trying to decode it that they didn’t notice a black car slowly drive toward him. It was Mr. Hoffman. Bert had fallen for his trap. The henchmen who Hoffman calls his partners jumped him. Bert was totally surprised just as Hoffman had planned. Bert hesitated for a few seconds. Then he started taking some pictures. One of them knocked the camera out of Bert’s hands and pushed him in the car. The other one took the not knowing that Greg would probably be able to decode it. He got in the car, and they drove away. The camera was left alone. The camera would have been real easy to steal, but no one dared to steal a camera right next to a detective’s office. Half an hour later, Greg came walking by. He saw the camera and picked it up. He cleverly deducted that the camera belonged to Bert, because it has his name on it. He wondered why Bert would leave his camera out there, and went in to look for him. He remembered that Bert told him he was going to be at the office that day. Greg realized that Bert must be in some kind of trouble. He left a note for Julie, and left to go get the pictures developed. An hour after that, Julie got to the office. She read the note, and quickly took off after Greg. When she got there, Greg was looking at some pictures. He quickly explained what he knew. Of the 36 pictures, the first 38 were taken at the party. They had seen him take all of those. Then he looked at the 29th. It was blurry, so he thought that Bert didn’t have time to focus it properly. The 30th was the same way. They were all like that, until the very last picture. It was rather clear. The coded message was in all the pictures, but this was the only on in which it was legible. Greg got out his magnifying glass and looked at the not and dictated what it said to Julie. She quickly wrote it down. After Julie wrote down what the not said, they decided to go back to the office and attempt to decipher the puzzling message and find out what happened to Bert. Meanwhile, Bert was tied up at Mr. Hoffman’s old hideout. The same on he use 2 years. Bert was hoping that either Greg of Julie had found his camera. He made sure the last picture was the best one that he ever took. He hoped Greg could decipher the message, because he couldn’t even remember what it said much less decipher it. Unknown to him, Mr. Hoffman was making plans with his henchmen. This was to be his worst crime ever. Far worse than blackmail, robbery, fraud, distribution of illegal drugs, or even kidnapping. He was talking about murder. He was telling his henchmen how to kill Julie. Greg was going to suffer all right. Nothing was going to happen to him, but the people around him. With Julie killed, Hoffman thought that Greg would do anything to make sure the same didn’t happen to Bert, even take his own life. However, Hoffman had a different plan that killing Greg. Greg was to commit all his crimes for him. He was going to be a servant of Mr. Hoffman. That’s how he planned to get his revenge. So far, it seemed to be working. Back at Greg’s office, Greg and Julie were looking at the coded message. If only they knew what was coming, but they didn’t.
“Revers,” mumbled Julie. “What on earth could Revers mean.”
“Sounds like rivers to me,” declared Greg, “but I doubt that’s what it means.”
They had to solve it fast, because the track meet started in 2 1/2 hours, and they had to get there and prepare for it. At Hoffman’s hideout, Bet was listening as Hoffman and his henchmen returned.
“Now remember,” continued Hoffman. “Give the brown paper bag to Julie as she’s about to enter the locker room. Just as before you do so, push the green button. The bomb will go off 1 minute later. Be at least 120 feet away from the blast site.”
Bert didn’t hear the last sentence, but he heard enough to figure out what was going on. After the track meet, they were going to give Julie a brown paper bag with a bomb in it. The bomb would be set to go off in one minute. Enough time for them to get away, but not enough time for poor Julie. He had to warn them somehow. Just then they came into the room. Mr. Hoffman got a gun out and pointed it straight at Bets throat. He used his other hand to pick up the phone.
“I want you to call Greg and tell him everything’s alright,” ordered Mr. Hoffman, “because if you don’t, it will be the last thing you’ll ever do.”
“O.K., I’ll call.” Bert snapped.
He knew he didn’t have a choice. Since he didn’t want Bert untied, Hoffman got one of his henchmen to pick up the receiver and put it against Bert’s face. The other one dialed the number to get in touch with Greg’s office. Back at the office, their ride to take them to the track meet just came. They were getting ready to leave, when the phone rang. Greg went to answer it.
“Go on out there!” Julie yelled.
“I’ll get it!” Greg decided it wasn’t worth it to argue with her, so he just went on out there.
Julie ran over to pick up the phone.
“Hello,” she greeted.
“Hello,” Bert replied.
“Bert!” exclaimed Julie. “I’m glad to hear from you! Where were you all this time? I thought you were going to come in early today.”
“I was,” Bert told her, “but, something unexpected suddenly came up.”
Of course, what Bert had said was true.
“I won’t be able to make it to the track meet either” he added, “and…oh yeah… be sure and tell Greg that the new car he looked at last week costs $5,600 dollars. Be sure to tell him that. Good-bye.”
“Good-bye.” Julie whispered softly.
She hung up and ran in the car. Back at the hide-out, Hoffman’s outside help came in. Bert was stunned. “You’d better get started.” scolded Hoffman. “You don’t want to be late to the track meet.”
Meanwhile, Greg and Julie were on their way to the track meet.
“Who called?” asked Greg.
“It was Bert.” began Julie. “He didn’t say a word about the camera. He did say something unexpected suddenly came up and he couldn’t attend the track meet. He also said that some new car you were looking at costs about $5,600.”
“$5,600?!” Greg blurted out.
“I know that’s expensive,” Julie stated, “but wouldn’t your Dad loan you some money, if you decided to buy it?”
“No, that’s not what I’m worried about,” Greg began. “Before you joined us, Bert helped me develop a number code. The 56 means that Hoffman is in the area. One zero means danger. Double zero means extreme danger. I didn’t look at any new cars last week. I think Mr. Hoffman has Bert…”
“…and he’s in extreme danger,” Julie cut in. “Danger, yes; extreme, no!”
Greg blurted back.
“I think he was warning us of extreme danger. Something that’s gonna’ happen, unless we can break the code,” Greg’s voice trailed off.
He glanced down at the code. He saw Hoffman’s name spelled backwards. Knob was bank spelled backwards, and lliw was will spelled backwards.
“Reverse!” Greg exclaimed. “Write down the message again this time reversing all letter, letter and spaces between the 2 commas."
Julie started doing so. She smiled. The message was starting to make sense. At the very end, she seemed a bit puzzled.
“Partners,” she read. “Mr. Hoffman will rob Jesterville Bank tomorrow at efour. Efour?” “The E is needed to change Revers into reverse,” explained Greg. “It is probably just there to confuse us. Don’t worry about it.”
“That didn’t help us much with what’s gonna happen at the track meet,” thought Greg.
Greg and Julie sat there ‘til they got to the track meet. When they got to the track meet, they each went into the locker room marked for tem. Because of the large number of people participating in this event, there was 4 separate locker rooms; one for the boys for the western part of the state, one for the girls on the western part of the state, one for the boys on the eastern pat of the state, and one for the girls on the eastern part of the state. They got into their track uniform rather quickly. When they wished each other luck and hope the East team would win. Then they departed each going their own way. Greg went on the field and started stretching out. Julie sat in the bleachers to watch. The girls wouldn’t start until after the boys had finished. She was surprised when Mr. Wilson sat down next to her.
“I was told I could find you here,” he explained. “Greg was right. There was some help. One of my men named Robert McDonald admitted to helping Hoffman escape.”
Wilson pointed to someone in the crowd. Julie looked where he was pointing. The guy he was pointing to looked just like the Hollywood version of a thug. He was wearing dark glasses to hide his identity.
“Obviously it didn’t work,” thought Julie.
“As I was saying,” Mr. Wilson continued, “Hoffman paid that guy 5 grand to help him escape. When we started looking for the inside man, he got real scared. The next we found a note saying what he had done, but there was no sign of him…until now. We have reason to believe he was sent here to kill Greg and you so be very careful.”
“Can I see the note?” Julie asked.
“I don’t have it with me right now,” Wilson replied. “It’s at the lab being examined just in case someone forged it. I’ll have it back before you leave if you’d like to look at it.”
There was a few seconds of silence.
“Oh, my God! I almost forgot!” Wilson exclaimed. “We have reason to believe Bert was kidnapped. He knew McDonald and I’m afraid he over trusted him.”
“I already know that,” said Julie.
She wet on to tell him about the camera, the phone call, and how the deciphered Hoffman’s code. Just then, the start of the meet was announced.
“One more thing,” Wilson added, “if McDonald comes near you don’t worry. I have 4 undercover cops in the stands and one a Lisa Reinheart, who looks high school aged, is going to be I the events with you. I’m afraid I’ll have to go now.”
In spite of this, she was still afraid that McDonald was going to try to kill her. She relaxed temporarily, by watching Greg. The first event that Greg was I was the softball throw. They took the better of 2 throws. Greg watched as the West competitors threw the ball much further than he could even imagine himself throwing it. His East teammates were doing the same thing. At last, it was Greg’s turn. Julie watched him excitedly, but her excitement could not hide her fear that someone was watching her. Greg looked for Julie in crowd. Then he picked up the softball and turned his attention to throwing it as fast as he could. His first throw went a long way, but was disqualified because he stepped across the line. For his second throw, he was careful no to step across the line. His throw went less than 200 feet, and he finished next-to-last. Greg felt ashamed with his throw and quietly slipped away to the bench. Julie was disappointed too, but she knew Greg’s best event was yet to come. Greg knew it too. He started loosening up for the 4000 meter run. Back at Mr. Hoffman’s hideout, Bert tried desperately to free himself. It seemed like the harder he tried, the tighter the ropes became. He looked around.
“There has to be another way,” he thought. “They’ll never suspect what’s gonna’ happen. Maybe Greg would, but it’s Julie hat they’re going after. I’ve got to escape. She’s doomed if I don’t.”
Bert gave a sigh of despair. It seemed. He just looked around. The room was dark and silent. It was too boring for him, he gave her credit for. Later at the track meet, Greg walked over to the starting line of the 4000-meter run. The disaster of the softball throw was still fresh in his mind, but he was prepared for this event. At the sound of the starting gun, Greg carefully timed his pace. He was in 4th place neither gaining nor loosing ground. The guy in 3rd place was just a few paces in front of him, but he knew the time for passing would come later. About halfway through, one of Greg’s teammates passed him. He went on until he had 1st place wrapped up. Greg was now in 5th. On the next to last lap, Greg made his move. He passed 2 people and was now in 3rd. The top 2 runners he already finished, so the best he could do was to maintain his place. He heard footsteps right behind him. He couldn’t stop. Finally, he finished in 3rd place with a tie of 17:41. His teammates came in 1st and 4th which was just enough for them to take the lead. Greg didn’t stick around to watch the final event. He went straight to the locker room, changed, and went straight up to the stands and sat beside Julie. Te West had gotten 1t, 2nd, and 3rd places in the 10,000 meter run, which was enough fro the win. Julie quickly told him what Mr. Wilson had told. Greg wished her luck as she took off to the track meet. Then she began to warm up. Julie came in 5th place in her event. Greg had been looking for Mr. Wilson earlier, but couldn’t find him. Greg watched Julie in her event. As soon as it was over, she headed for the locker room. Greg knew something was wrong and immediately took off after her. About halfway to the locker room she was stopped by Mr. Wilson. He handed her a brown paper bag.
“Here is all the information you need to know,” he told her.
He looked inside it one more time to check on something. He reached in it, gave the bag to Julie, and took off. He passed Greg on his way out. Greg new something was wrong. He saw Mr. Wilson give Julie the paper bag.
“Julie! Wait!” Greg yelled, but it was too late.
She’d already gone into the locker room.
“WAIT!!!!” Greg yelled at the top of his lungs.
Julie came back out. She had recognized Greg’s voice even though he was yelling so loud. It sounded so urgent that she didn’t even put down the paper bag she was carrying. Greg snatched the paper bag. At first Julie was shocked, but then she saw why Greg was doing this. In his haste, Greg had ripped the paper bag open and a crude-looking bomb fell to the ground. Greg immediately picked the bomb up and ran with it. Julie was very relieved, but there was nothing she could do. She just went back into the locker room hoping that Greg could get rid of it in time. Greg had to think of where to get rid of the bomb. He knew he couldn’t run the way he cam. He was running blind. Fortunately, the school officials placed maps of the school at regular intervals. Greg passed on and quickly looked at it. The baseball field was a wide-open area and nobody was there. Greg took the shortest possible rout to the baseball field. Know that the bomb could go off that very second, Greg ran faster than he’d ever run before. Greg was worried that he’d taken the wrong path, but it was too late to go back. After what seemed like eons, Greg was the ball field. It was the softball throw for real. Greg threw the bomb as far as he could and ran toward a nearby ditch. The bomb exploded in mid air. Greg scrambled in the ditch just before the debris reached. Besides being covered with dirt, Greg was O.K. He was somewhat relieved.
“The grounds crew will have a lot of work to do,” he thought as he walked back to rejoin Julie.
On the way back, he told Julie to lie low. Maybe they didn’t know she was still alive. Back at the hideout Mr. Hoffman was waiting for Mr. Wilson to return. He sent one of his henchmen out to see what happened. Sometime later he returned. He told Mr. Hoffman that Greg had somehow found out that Mr. Wilson had helped tem escape and he was arrest by some of his own. Hoffman also learned that Mr. Wilson had used the bomb, but it went off at the baseball field. Bert woke up in time to hear most of this conversation. He was greatly relived, but somehow knew it wasn’t over yet. As long as he was still there, Mr. Hoffman had bargaining power. He was using the phone at that very moment. Back at Greg’s office, Julie had already left. Greg was just about to lock up when he heard the phone ring. He was thing about Bert at the time, so he wasn’t surprised when he found out who called him.
“Hello,” said Greg in a worried tone of voice.
“This is Mr. Hoffman,” the voice replied.
It was greatly disguised and mysterious, but it was Hoffman’s voice never the less.
“As I was saying,” the voice continued. “We have Bert.”
“I know,” Greg declared coldly in a machine like tone of voice.
“…so we’d better go to the old hideout. You know where it is,” Greg concluded.
“But that’s his old hideout, not his new one,” disagreed Julie.
“Hidden in plain sight,” Greg explained. “It has to be a place that we can get to.”
Slowly they set off for the hideout. A little bit later, one of Mr. Hoffman’s henchmen cam in.
“The coming!” he exclaimed.
“Good! I knew he’d think what I thought he’d think I’d think, I think,” thought Mr. Hoffman.
Then he gave the signal and everyone hid. Greg and Julie were surprised to find the place empty. They were just about to leave when they heard a muffled yelp. They ran in the direction of the yelp. It was Bert. They had just finished freeing Bert when Mr. Hoffman and his henchmen came out of hiding. Each one had a gun on one of them.
“Now I want you to help us rob a bank,” smirked Mr. Hoffman.
They didn’t have a choice. They all got in the car. One of the henchmen was driving. Bert was in the front right. Then the other henchmen, Julie, Greg, and Hoffman were in the back, in that order. Greg had taken Bert’s camera with him. Just before they got in the car, Greg gave the camera to Bert. He whispered a short little plan in his ear. No one seemed to pay any attention to it. Bert was scared. The entire plan depended on him. Casually, he rolled down his window. Now he just had to wait for the right time. When he got the chance, Greg whispered his plan to Julie. Julie secretly smiled. Bert got sidetracked with other thoughts. Greg had to nudge him before he remembered to lookout the window. By then, they were going down a small country road. It seemed like they were the only car on the road. Bert gleaned at the car keys. As soon as they slowed down for a turn, Bert grabbed the car keys and threw them out the window. The car slowly came to a halt. The henchman that wasn’t driving got to look for the keys. Suddenly, Bert darted out the door. This distracted Mr. Hoffman long enough for Greg and Julie to slip out the opposite door.
“Come back! I have a spare set of keys!” Mr. Hoffman shouted at the guy looking for the keys.
When Hoffman yelled, “Come back!” it was so convincing that Julie hesitated for a split second.
The driver caught her immediately. Mr. Hoffman caught Greg. Bert began taking pictures. He got good pictures of Mr. Hoffman, his henchmen, their weapons, the way they’d captured Greg and Julie, their car, and their license plate number. Bert was caught by the other henchman. He threw the camera up in the air. Julie tried to get it, but the henchman that had her pushed her into the woods. She landed quite painfully. Mr. Hoffman tried to get it. This freed Greg. Greg jumped up and caught the camera in mid air. Then he took off and ran with it. He ran faster than he did at the track meet. Mr. Hoffman tossed his henchman the keys. He told them to come pick him after he caught Greg. His henchmen were scared. They stuffed Bert in the middle of the front seat. The henchmen got on both sides of him and they fled to the ocean. Julie got up slowly. She seemed to have been forgotten. She walked up to the nearest house and used their phone to call the police. Meanwhile, Greg had pulled way ahead of Mr. Hoffman. He could have shaken him off completely, but that wasn’t part of his plan. Greg turned into Jeff’s Jewelry store. Jeff owed him a favor. (See Detective Greg) Greg use his phone to call the police. Thanks to Julie, they were already on the way. Greg told them that Hoffman was cashing him. He’d turn right and run north on 8th Street until he got to Main Street. There the police would set up a blockade. Mr. Hoffman saw Greg turn into Jeff’s Jewelry store and waited at the front entrance, but Greg went out the door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY. He was well within shooting range, but there were too many people around. He followed Greg down 8th Street. When he got to the corner of 8th and Main, Greg stopped, turned around and put his hands in the air. He looked like he was surrendering.
“Finally,” gasped Mr. Hoffman.
He ran over to where Greg was.
“Now I got you!” Hoffman bellowed.
“And we’ve got you” added the chief of police.
Six police officers came out. Each one had a gun pointed at Mr. Hoffman. Hoffman was captured and Greg got another reward. This time they’d make sure Hoffman didn’t escape. Hoffman’s revenge plan had failed. At the same time, the henchmen were being chased by a police car. They were so busy trying to get away that they didn’t notice Bert. Bert slammed his foot on the break. There would have probably been a wreck if the policeman driving the car wasn’t such a good driver. They got out of the car and captured the henchmen. Bert also got a reward. To make it complete, Julie got a reward for calling the police and giving the information. After lunch, they all united again. The police gave them all a ride back to their office.
“By the way, Greg, how did you know not to trust Mr. Wilson,” Julie wondered.
“I first became suspicious of him when he tried to rush us out,” Greg replied. “He seemed scared when I figured out that Hoffman had gotten some outside help. Also, the way he stayed hidden from me at the track meet, I figured he was after you!”
“And did you know that I was warning you of extreme danger instead of saying I was in extreme danger?” asked Bert.
“Thanks to your camera, we knew what happened to you. I thought you know that to. If you weren’t telling us you were in extreme danger, then you must have been warning us that we were in extreme danger,” Greg explained.
The story of how Hoffman had been captured made the news. Bert knew he’d be respected in the detective camp. They used their reward money to trade their old black and white T.V. for a new color T.V. The rest of their money went to pay the rent. If you wonder what happened to Hoffman, the pictures convicted him of crimes serous enough for him to serve a 25-life sentence. The 2 henchmen were to serve a 10-15 year sentence. This was in addition to their old sentences. They were moved to a prison with even tougher security than the old one they had escaped from. Mr. Wilson gave a plea of guilty. There was no evidence to convict him of a serious crime so he only got a 3-5 year sentence. If he could a parole, he could be back in a little over a year. However, Greg, Bert, and Julie weren’t worried about that. The rest of the day they watched their new T.V. and played chess. Poor Julie didn’t win a single game. On the other hand, Bert did great. He beat Julie 5 times straight. Then he played Greg 5 time. The final time he actually won! It was “the miracle of the second year.” Now Bert knew he’d be respected at the detective camp. He couldn’t wait to go. The last time he’d played Greg at chess he’d won. There wasn’t anyone else in the entire world who could say that.
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