Bo was shocked.  "You're going to withdraw?"

 "That's right," Madelyn announced.  "I'm quitting.  I made up my mind today."

 "You can't do that," Blake said.
He remembered how enthusiastic Madelyn was about being in the talent contest.

 "Why are you quitting?" Shirley asked, her curiosity aroused.

 "Because..."  Madelyn hesitated.  "Because I haven't been feeling well."

 Shirley saw how Madelyn was looking at the table.  She spotted a piece of paper on top of Madelyn's school stuff.

 "Hey!" Madelyn exclaimed as Shirley reached for the paper.  She tried to stop her, but Shirley was too quick for her.
Shirley pulled out the paper from underneath the magazines and looked at it.  It was a note with words composed of cut-out letters pasted on the paper.

 "Give it back!" Madelyn demanded angrily.

 Shirley read out the note.  "'If you stay in the contest, I'll tell Y about what you did.  I have the proof.'"
She looked at Madelyn.  "When did you get this?"

 Madelyn rose out of the couch quickly and snatched the note off Shirley's hand.  "It's none of your business!"

 "But we're trying to help," Blake pleaded.

 "You can help by leaving now!"  Madelyn, still clutching the note, pointed to the door.

"Look, we can help you," Bo said.

 "GET OUT!" Madelyn shouted, still pointing to the door.
 Seeing that it was a losing battle, Shirley went out the door, followed by Bo and Blake.
Madelyn slammed the door hard behind them.

 "Okay, now what?" Bo asked Shirley.

 "Now we go to the source of the problem," Shirley said.

 In her dorm room at Sussex Academy, Molly Hardy smiled with pleasure at her computer.  She was almost done with putting in the daily gossip on her web site.

"Spreading more lies, Molly?"
 Molly spun around to see Shirley standing in her room.  "The door was locked!  How did you...?"

 Shirley showed her Swiss Army knife to Molly.  "Simple enough to pick," she said, putting away the knife.
"It's a good thing you were too preoccupied with the computer."

 "I had to take that retina camera to the repair shop yesterday," Molly muttered.
She narrowed her eyes at Shirley.  "What do you want?" she demanded.

 "To lay off Madelyn Clifton," Shirley answered, meeting Molly's gaze.

 Molly leaned back and folded her arms across her chest.  She smiled wickedly.
"And why would I want to do that, Holmes?"

 "Madelyn never did anything to you," Shirley said.

 "But she has.  She's in my way, Holmes."  Molly's wicked smile grew.  "I don't like it when people get in my way."

 "She doesn't deserve this," Shirley argued.

 "Oh, but she does," Molly said.  "Madelyn was such a bad girl once.  Really bad."

Shirley glared at Molly.  "What are you talking about?"

 "You mean you didn't ask her?" Molly said with mock innocence.
"Well, I'm not going to tell you, Holmes.  I'm not going to lose my...insurance."  She grinned again, looking even more fiendish.

 Shirley walked up to Molly and stood before her.  "I will stop you, Molly."

 Molly stood up and looked at Shirley coldly.  "Oh, I wouldn't do that, Holmes.  You do remember my little cyber alter ego Y?"

 Shirley met Molly's stare.  "I haven't forgotten."

 "Well, if you try to get Madelyn back into the contest, I'll make you pay," Molly said menacingly.
"I'll put your picture on the World Wide Web, and your career as a detective will be over, just like that."  She snapped her fingers.  "Oh, and Bo's parents would find out that they owe more to the bank than usual.  Maybe their savings would be wiped out."

 "You wouldn't dare," Shirley said, her eyes narrowing.

 "Oh, I would, plus so much more," Molly said icily.  "Anything to protect my interests."

 Shirley walked to the door.  "You won't get away with this, Molly."
She looked at Molly, then left quickly and closed the door.

 Molly shook her head.  "Always the defiant one, Holmes."  She reached for her phone and dialed.
She waited until she heard someone answer.
"Hello?  Yes, it's me.  I need your services again..."

 Outside the dormitory, Bo and Blake waited for Shirley.  She met up with them.
They left Sussex Academy and went to Shirley's house.  They settled down in the attic.

"Well?" Bo asked.

 "It's Molly, all right," Shirley said.  "She's blackmailing Madelyn to keep her out of the contest."

"With what?" Blake asked.

 "I'm not sure," Shirley answered.  "It has to do with Madelyn's past, though."

 "Typical Molly," Bo commented.  "She's such a control freak."

 "She made a few threats to me if I helped Madelyn," Shirley revealed.

 "Like what?" Bo asked, concerned.

 "If I help Madelyn, Y will put my picture on the Net," Shirley said.

 "But that'll ruin you!" Blake exclaimed.

 "That's not the only threat she made."  Shirley looked at Bo.  "She threatened to tamper with your parents' bank records."

 Bo raised an eyebrow.  "What?"

 "Apparently she's desperate," Blake noted.  "She knows we're a threat."

 Bo formed his hands into fists at his sides.  "We can't let Molly get away with this."

"She won't, Bo," Shirley said reassuringly.

 "Just how are we going to stop her?" Bo asked, frustrated.  "We help Madelyn, Molly will ruin our lives.
We don't help Madelyn, Molly ruins her life.  Doomed if we do, doomed if we don't."

 Shirley looked at Blake.  "Think you can handle Y?"

 Blake beamed.  "I think I can handle her.  No sweat."

 "Excellent," Shirley said, pleased.

"How?" Bo asked.

 "The first thing to do is to see Madelyn again," Shirley said.  "We need to know what Molly has on her."

 "Not today, Shirley," Bo said.  "I need to go back to the fish store.
I promised my parents to help clean up in exchange for hanging out with you guys."

"And I need to work on this Y problem," Blake said.  "I'd like to stay..."

"I bet you would," Bo muttered.

 "But the stuff I need is all on my computer," Blake finished.

 "I guess we'll go see Madelyn again tomorrow," Shirley said.  "I'll see you later."

 Bo and Blake said their good-byes, then left Shirley's house.  They were about to go their separate ways when Blake stopped Bo for a moment.  "Hold on there, Bo."

"What do you want?"  Bo eyed Blake.

 "I thought that the problem between us was settled," Blake said.

 "It is.  You like Shirley.  She likes you.  It's settled."  Bo started on his way.

"Is it?"  Blake moved into Bo's way.  "Are you okay with it?"

 "Yeah," Bo said, not looking at Blake.

 "Bo, I don't like coming between you and Shirley..." Blake began.

 "We're just friends," Bo said.  "That's all, Blake.  We're just friends."

 Blake saw that Bo was not going to discuss the matter any further.
"Take care, Bo.  I'll see you tomorrow."  He started on his way home.

 Bo watched as Blake left, then started walking away from Shirley's house.  He stopped for a moment and looked at where the attic was, wondering what Shirley was doing.  He sighed.
"We're just friends," he said to himself sadly.

 Unknown to Bo, he was being watched.  In fact, someone had witnessed the brief discussion between Bo and Blake.  Hiding behind a tree, the one-eyed man watched as Bo left the area.  He smiled briefly, then looked at Shirley's house for a few minutes as if studying it.

 "But I swear it's true!" Stink pleaded to Alicia in the outside eating area. "It wasn't me!"

 "Who else could it be?"  Alicia showed Stink a fake eyeball.  "I found this in my dorm room after I cleaned it up.  You came in through the window and messed up my room.  Admit it!"

 "It wasn't me!" Stink proclaimed his innocence.  "It was the falcon.
It came through my window, looked around my room, and took my fake eyeball from my desk.  I saw it."

 "A falcon?" Alicia said disbelievingly.  "Right, Stink.  How'd it get into your room?  Did it open the window with its beak?"

 "No," Stink answered.  "With its claw."

 Alicia looked upward, exasperated.  "I don't believe this..."

 Shirley, Bo, and Blake watched as Alicia continued to accuse Stink of causing the mess in her room and Stink trying to say that a falcon did it.

"Boy, that's lame, even for Stink," Bo remarked.

 "He's not the only one," Bart James said.

"You saw a falcon too?" Blake asked.

 "No, but something weird did happen to me last Saturday.  My room was ransacked," Bart said.

"Whoa," Bo said.

 "Why didn't you call the police?" Shirley asked.

 "Well, nothing was stolen," Bart answered.  "My stuff was just scattered around the room."

 Shirley pursed her lips and thought for a moment.  She spotted Molly with some other girls at another table.  The girls were obviously sucking up to Molly, telling her how great she looked.  Shirley shook her head and returned to her lunch.

 Alicia marched up to Shirley, still steamed about her room.  "Shirley, can you check out my room?  Can you find something that proves Stink was the one who messed up my room?"

 Stink joined them.  "Shirley, can you help me out here?"

 Shirley shook her head.  "I'll do both.  I'll stop by the dorms later and take a look at both of your rooms.  Stink's first."

 "Thanks, Shirley."  Alicia went off followed by Stink.  They resumed arguing as they left.

 "You're actually going to look into this?" Bo asked, dumbfounded.

 "What about Madelyn?" Blake said, keeping his voice low.  "We were supposed to find out what Molly has on her."

 "We're still going to," Shirley whispered.  "While I look into this little matter, you take care of Y."

"Gotcha," Blake said.

 "I'll tag along with you, Shirley," Bo declared.  "Maybe I can help prevent some bloodshed." Blake smiled mysteriously at Bo.
 "What?" Bo said.

 "Okay.  We'll all meet at Madelyn's after we're all done," Shirley said, closing the discussion.
She returned to her lunch while still keeping an eye on Molly.
 Suddenly, Shirley caught a glimpse of someone watching her from one of the nearby buildings.  She thought she recognized the one-eyed man, but when she tried to get a better look, the man was gone.
 

 "Hmmmm."  Shirley examined Stink's window through her magnifying glass while Bo, Stink, and Alicia watched her.  She then focused her attention to Stink's desk.

 "Be thankful I didn't tell Ms. Stratmann about this," Alicia told Stink.

 "For the umpteenth time, I didn't do it," Stink said defensively.

 "He's right," Shirley announced, stepping away from the desk.

 "What?!!" Alicia exclaimed in disbelief.

 "I saw some marks that match a large bird's talons on both the bottom of the window and the edge of the desk," Shirley said.
 "The window lock is broken."

 "Must have been a strong bird if it used its claw to open the window," Bo said.

 "Told you," Stink said to Alicia.

"But that's impossible," Alicia said.

 "Let's look at your room," Shirley told Alicia.

 They all went to Alicia's room.  There, Shirley examined the window and the desk.
"Same as Stink's," Shirley concluded.  "I'd say the falcon, or whatever type of bird it was, somehow got into Stink's room through the window.  It perched on his desk and looked around before leaving out the window with the fake eyeball.  The bird went to
Alicia's, did the same, made a mess, and left the eyeball behind."

 "Shirley, did you just hear yourself?" Bo asked, still trying to take it all in.

 "Sounds a little too weird if you ask me," Alicia commented.

 "I have to agree," Stink said.

 "Well, since Stink's been exonerated, I'll be going now," Shirley said, heading for the door.
"I have a more important matter to deal with."

 "I'll go home and change," Bo said.  "I'll see you later, Shirley."
 Shirley nodded and left.

 Shirley stood outside Madelyn's apartment building waiting for Bo and Blake.  She checked the time on her watch.  Where could they be? she thought.

 A few minutes later, she saw Bo and Blake heading her way.  They were running.
"What took you so long?" she asked them.

 After catching his breath, Bo answered, "Someone broke into our place."

 "What?"  Shirley was concerned.

 "Yeah.  Someone broke into our place and made a mess of things.  Nothing was stolen, though," Bo reported.
"I helped my parents tidy up a little."  He remembered something.  "I think I saw the one-eyed man from the Quazar Cafe"

"Are you sure it was him?" Shirley asked.

 "I'm positive," Bo replied.  "I saw him watching from a distance.  I also think he did it."

"Why?" Blake asked.

"He was wearing gloves," Bo answered.

 "And you?" Shirley asked Blake.

 "Well, just as I arrived home, I found a police car outside my house.  I hurried inside and I found my dad and a policewoman trying to comfort Rosa in the living room," Blake said.  "Rosa kept going on about some bird flying in."

"A falcon?" Bo guessed.

 "Yeah, Rosa did say it was a falcon."  Blake looked at Bo, surprised.  "How did you...?"

"I'll explain later.  What did the bird do?" Shirley asked.

 "According to Rosa, it just flew around the house and looked around in all of the rooms.  Rosa swears that it even perched in front of my computer and sat there staring at it for a minute.  It eventually left through the door after Rosa chased it out with a broom," Blake recalled.

 "This day is just getting weirder and weirder," Bo commented.

"Molly's definitely outdone herself this time."
 They went upstairs to Madelyn's apartment and Shirley knocked on the door.  Madelyn answered the door.

 "Not you again," Madelyn said upon seeing Shirley.  She started to close the door, but Bo reached out and grabbed it, holding it open.

 "We need to talk," Shirley said seriously.  "We won't leave until we do."

 Madelyn sensed Shirley's determination.  "You're very persistent."

 "It's a gift," Shirley replied.

 Madelyn gave in and opened the door.  "Come on in," she said with a sigh.  "I'll explain everything."
 

END OF PART THREE
 

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