#23
Abby and the Secret Society
by Ann M. Martin

When Abby signs the BSC up to help reopen a country club that's been closed for twenty years, the girls find more than just cobwebs to clear away.

"Do you often do police work on your own time?" I asked. Mary Anne nudged me, and I knew she thought I was asking too many questions. But I was interested. "Not often," Sergeant Johnson answered, shaking his head. "But this case is different. According to the department, it's closed. But I don't see it that way. This case is very close to my heart, and it won't be closed for me until...until..."

"Why don't you sit down and tell us about it?" Mary Anne asked in her gentle," good listener" voice. She gestured toward a bench. Now she was curious.

"When I was a kid, my best friend's name was David Follman," Sergeant Johnson began as soon as we were all settled onto the bench. "When we grew up, I became a cop and he became a reporter. Thirty years ago, he began an investigation into some dirty doings at Dark Woods."

"Like the way they wouldn't let certain people join?" I asked.

Worse than that," said Sergeant Johnson. "David had heard rumors about a secret society operating out of the club, a group of men who were involved in a blackmail and extortion ring. They were powerful men, made more powerful by joining forces. They acted illegally to force the local townspeople and merchants to do what they wanted them to do: to vote a certain way, for example, or to use a certain contractor to build their new school"

"That's awful!" said Mary Anne.

"David thought so, too," said Sergeant Johnson."He went undercover to try to infiltrate the society. And I think he was succeeding! But before he could publish his findings, or even share them with me, David died."

"Oh!" Mary Anne gasped. I felt a knot start to grow in my stomach.

Abby and the Secret Society
Published by Scholastic Inc. 1996
ISBN: 0590228676