might be. Joe
Franey, the detective assigned by Mr. Nichols to the service, was young
and, while not handsome, distinguished in appearance. His bearing gave
no hint of his professional calling. Penny found Joe very likeable.
He never irritated her by making her aware of his presence--in fact,
for hours at a time she never saw him at all--yet when she was on the
street she was seldom out of his sight.

For the next few days, following Joe's assignment to his new duties,
Penny and Susan slyly amused themselves by trying to see if they could
outwit him. They led the detective a gay chase from one end of the
city to another. They dropped into department stores, dodging in one
door and out another, but when they were confident they had baffled
Joe, they were very apt to see him watching them from a doorway across
the street.

Or if they entered a theatre apparently unobserved by the faithful
sleuth they were almost certain to see him only a few seats behind.
But soon Joe became such a fixture in Penny's life that she accepted
him without much thought.

True to Mr. Nichols' prediction, all remained quiet on the Rap Molberg
front save that the unsuccessful raid had stirred up an aftermath of
bitter criticism. The local newspapers provided considerable
unfavorable publicity; editors ran scorching editorials blaming Mr.
Nichols and the police for the failure to break up the Molberg gang.

Infuriated by the comments of the press, the police commissioner called
both the detective and Jerome Davis to his office. Neither could
explain the failure of the raid. It was obvious that someone had
allowed information to leak and since only Mr. Nichols and a few
policemen had known the details of the raid, suspicion tended to center
upon Jerome Davis.

"It's only a matter of days until he'll be discharged from the force,"
Mr. Nichols told his daughter.

"Surely you don't think he'd be guilty of helping Rap Molberg?" Penny
questioned.

"I don't know what to believe. Davis was called on the carpet
yesterday and given an opportunity to explain a number of things. He
wouldn't talk."

"But that doesn't prove necessarily that he's guilty, does it?"

"No, but he's acted strangely of late. The fact remains that someone
let information leak either by accident or deliberately. Davis was in
a bad spot before this. Now I'm afraid nothing can save his job."

"I feel so sorry for Betty," Penny murmured. "She'll take it hard if