Nabbed!: The 1925 Journal of G. Codd Fitzmorgan (15 page)

It wasn't until later that I realized Mang was an anagram for G-man, which is a nickname for “Government man.”

Ness showed me the badge he had taken from beneath his cape. “I've been working undercover as Mang the Magnifico to break
the smuggling ring.”

Seeing I still wasn't convinced, Judge put a hand on my shoulder. “Mr. Ness is the one who was following us in the parlor's
passage–“ Miss Pinkerton might be meeting John in there. When I saw it was you, G. Codd, I turned back.”

Eliot Ness

“After we left you handcuffed in my room,” Judge said to me, “I convinced Mr. Ness that we were on the side of the good guys.
He told me that he wasn't really Mang, but a federal agent. So I came up with this plan. We but a federal agent. So I came
up with this plan. We would get John to confess in front of hidden witnesses what he's been up to all these months–“

I guess John was convinced of Mr. Ness's true identity. Because he turned and started to run toward the nearby woods before
Mr. Ness could handcuff him. But John was stopped dead in his tracks by yet another figure who stepped out of the shadows.

“Pop,” John said, skittering to a stop in the wet grass. “Pop…”

It was Hiram Hatherford. John stood before his father, and now the guilty boy routine didn't look like an act.

“You heard me? You heard what I said, Pop?” John pleaded with his father. “I did this…I did this because I love you…”

Mr. Hatherford looked like this ordeal had stolen the remains of his youth. With tears in eyes, he spoke quietly. “John. Shhh.
Please. Don't say anything more.” He shook his white head. “You betrayed me. You betrayed our family. I tried to give you
everything in the world, but the one thing that I don't seem to have given you is a sense of right and wrong.”

Mr. Hatherford took a deep breath and stepped away from his son. “Well, I have the feeling you're about to have plenty of
time to learn that lesson. Arrest him!”

His father's words must have frozen John with shame. He remained unmoving as Mr. Ness placed the handcuffs on him.

With a wink at me, Mr. Ness said, “Let's hope these handcuffs work a little better on the real bad guys.”

Judge moved quickly to Mr. Hatherford, who was trembling violently, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. She signaled
to the nurse who had been standing nearby to join us. I over Judge ask the nurse to take Mr. Hatherford to his room.

Eliot Ness started to lead John back to the mansion. Questions whirled in my head. I called, “Mr. Ness, how did you know about
John? Why were you working here?”

Holding tightly to one of John's arms, Mr. Ness paused and turned to me. “Eight months ago, crates of liquor were found washed
up along the coast–near the spot where John's first plane crashed.” He tapped his forehead. “I put two and tow together. The
crates came from John's plane. No one else would come after a man with so much wealth and power, but what do I have to lose?
Sorry about scaring you before in Miss Pinkerton's room, Kid. I didn't want to blow my cover until I was sure I had the real
bad guys.” Mr. Ness waited a second and then added with a gleam in his eyes. “I came here seeking spirits as Mang ze Magnifico
and I found them as Eliot Ness.”

Crates of liquor washed up on the shore.

There was no sound. Only crickets.

“Okay, bad joke,” Mr. Ness said quickly. “Anyway, John here can join his good pal Virgil Gates, who is already cuffed inside
the mansion. They can wait for the local authorities to arrive togeter.”

“What about Virgil's girlfriend, Asyla Notabe?” I asked.

Mr. Ness shrugged. “Interesting woman. I'd love to talk to her, but she's gone.”

This caught me by surprise. “Gone? You mean vanished?”

“Not exactly,” Mr. Ness said. “There was a dinghy at the dock. It's not there anymore. I don't know if Asyla had enough of
this party or smelled trouble brewing.

Either way, she's left the island.”

“Are you going to send police after her?”

“Why? I have no evidence that she was involved in the bootlegging operation,” Mr. Ness said.

Just then Judge walked over. “Can I have a moment with John, Mr. Ness?”

After a second's hesitation, Mr. Ness let go of John's arm and stepped a few feet away. For a long moment, Judge just stared
at John. Finally, she said, “John, you cannot bend the law for your own enjoyment or personal gain. It doesn't bend, it only
breaks. The same is true of a relationship. There are laws that must be obeyed in love–or it shatters. And then it's gone
forever.”

Judge turned away and walked over to the plane.

John's face cleared, and it was as if I were seeing him for the first time. There were no more masks. “Goodbye, Justine,”
he said quietly. But I don't know if she heard him. Then Ness was pulling him away, back toward the mansion.

Judge stood alone next to John's aircraft. She traced her fingers along the side, as if dreaming of where the future might
have taken her.

I walked slowly over to her. “You know, I've changed my mind,” I said after a few moments of silence. “I think people can
see the future. You want to know what I see?”

Judge didn't answer me. I knew she was struggling with her emotions.

I looked directly at her. “I see a woman who's going to get what she wants out of life.”

Judge let out a small sob. “Thank you, my friend,” she whispered.

Judge looped an arm around my shoulders and we headed back to the house. The first rays of the sun were breaking over the
horizon, casting our long shadows across the wet green grass and spreading bright light across the crystal-clear sky.

WARNING: This letter reveals the story's ending!

One of the best parts about reading a good mystery is that you're never sure what's going to happen next. You get to imagine different paths the story might take. Will the hero dive into the pool of alligators or swing over them on a vine?

When I write, I do kind of the same thing. No, I don't swoop over a pool filled with snapping gators. But I do dream up new, imagined paths for people and events from history.

For example, Eliot Ness appears in NABBED! Ness was a famous crime fighter who brought down Al Capone, one of the biggest gangsters. But did Ness dress UP like Mang ze Magnifico and crack a rum-smuggling ring in North Carolina right after college as he did in this story? Probably not.

While I tried to be true to the investigative techniques of 1925, my main goal was to write an exciting mystery. The mansion, Judge, even the island—they all seem real to me and, hopefully, to you. But remember, they're inventions of my imagination.

I hope you had fun reading NABBED!—just don't use G. Codd's journal as study material for your next history test! or that pool of gators might look pretty good compared to your teacher's reaction.

Yours in time,

Bill Doyle was born in Lansing, Michigan, and wrote his first mystery when he was eight. He loved seeing the shock on people’s faces when they discovered the identity of the story’s villain–and knew then that he was hooked on writing. Bill has written for Sesame workshop, LeapFrog, Scholastic, ROLLING STONE, TIME FOR KIDS, AND HE Museum of Natural History. He lives in New York City with a mysterious dachshund named Esme.

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