Suzette waited patiently, in dark sunglasses and scarf, for Mrs. Beckhold to exit the home. She knew Mr. Beckhold usually left fairly early for the store, but she wasn't very sure of Judith's schedule. Mr. Beckhold left around 7:15 and his wife followed, about 9:00am. The hunt was finally on.
As Suzette followed a few cars behind Judith, their first stop was to check in on Judith's mother, Louise. Louise was quite elderly and Mr. Beckhold would often joke that she may out live them all. Judith spent about 30 minutes inside Louise's home, as Suzette waited patiently, four doors down the street. The next stop was the post office, where Judith was mailing several letters. Suzette couldn't help but wonder if one of those letters might be going to the mystery man, but there was no way of knowing this. The third stop on Judith's list was in the neighboring town at a very inconspicuous, small, office building. Suzette wondered what sort of business Mrs. Beckhold could possibly have there. It was a much older, out of date building, and not much really went on there, anymore. Things were beginning to get interesting. Judith spent about 45 minutes, inside the building. She then got into her car and drove around to the back, and to Suzette's complete shock, the mystery man was waiting for her! He walked over to her window and Judith handed him an envelope, they spoke a few words, Judith drove away, and the mystery man got into a car which was parked behind the building, as well, and drove away in the opposite direction. Suzette was a bit stunned. Her mind racing through scenarios. Was Mrs. Beckhold in some sort of trouble, and paying this guy off for her involvement in some kind of sinister affair? Or even worse, was she planning a hit on Mr. Beckhold?! What reason could she possibly have for this? The Beckhold's seemed to be a perfect, successful, and happy couple.
Suzette continued her surveillance on Judith, but the unusual actions seemed to be over and done with, for now. Suzette decided to drive out to the creek, near her home. She always seemed to do her best thinking there.. and boy, did she have a lot of thinking to do!
She began to put the facts together. Mrs. Beckhold was first seen at the Jr. high football game, speaking with the mystery man, near the concession stand, in a dark corner. Next, Suzette saw the same man on the 11 o'clock news, speaking with President Eisenhower, and entering his limousine. And now Judith was seen speaking with and handing an envelope to the same man, at a very old and nearly obsolete, office building. Something sure smelled like rotten fish and Suzette was determined to get to the bottom of it. Mr. Beckhold's life could depend on it!
That night, as Suzette was lying in bed, her mind still spinning with "what if's", she came to the conclusion that this man must be some sort of international spy and Mrs. Beckhold must be entangled in some sort of sinister pursuit.. and seeming to be a willing participant, as well. Mr. Beckhold didn't seem to aware at all of what was going on, which was intriguing in and of itself. The two were so close, how could he not be aware of this? Suzette decided that the envelope given to the mystery man must have been payment for a hit job on Mr Beckhold. Judith must need him out of the picture in order to further her involvement in this international spy ring. And it had to look like an accident! Remember, this was a small town and neighbors talk.
Suzette knew that she must get word to the local police of what was going on. She spoke to the chief and he appeared skeptical, to say the least. Letting her know that he thought her overactive imagination was getting the best of her, but she insisted. She began to lay out all of the "evidence" and slowly but surely seemed to begin to get the Chief thinking. The more Suzette talked, the more concerned he became. The Chief finally relented and told her that he would have his men get right on it, and thanked her for the tip. She felt a bit better, but knew she had to stay on top of this. Lives we hanging in the balance! The following day, she heard a news report on the radio, that the President of the United States was coming to town for meetings with local law enforcement. Suzette knew this could not be a coincidence and that the mystery man and Mrs. Beckhold must have known this in advance. Was the hit on the president? Was he actually the one who would be targeted and not Mr. Beckhold? Suzette didn't know quite what to think at this point, except that something terrible was about to happen to someone! That night, she noticed the Chiefs patrol car parked several houses down from the Beckhold's, and thought, finally, he's doing something about this! Her heart was racing because she felt like time was running out. She parked even further down and began to sneak toward the home, noticing that there were more vehicles than usual parked throughout the neighborhood. Suddenly, she was stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the mystery man sneaking into the backdoor of the Beckhold's darkened home! She frantically looked all over for the Chief and suddenly heard a very loud scream, from what sounded like multiple people. What is going on? she thought... she was now in a full blown panic. Something must have happened to someone! Was it the president? Was it Mr. Beckhold? As she peered through the window she saw the lights come on and huge crowd of people gathered in the home. It's an entire gang, she thought! Then she saw Mr. Beckhold, the Chief, the mystery man, and even the president! They were laughing and hugging, and carrying on. Her heart suddenly sank from embarrassment. She quickly realized that this was no sinister plot against anyone, but a very well planned and orchestrated surprise birthday party for Mr. Beckhold! Suzette was ready to turn her journalism hat in. She felt like a failure. The Chief noticed that she looked quite down as he put his arm around her and explained what had happened. The mystery man, whose name was actually Henry Wallous, Mr. Beckhold, and President Eisenhower, all played football together in high school. They were the rat pack of 1909. He explained that he knew all along of the plans for the party, but couldn't reveal that to Suzette when she came to him. He did however, tell her what terrific detective skills she showed and her persistence with the case was admirable. He thought she'd make a great investigative journalist someday. Needless to say, this put a huge smile on Suzette's face. She continued with reporting and eventually did land that big city reporting job, but gave it up some years ago to pursue a career as a private eye, which seemed to be her true calling.
