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in, to help me remember." Ray was Ted’s ten-year-old brother.
    "What happened?" Ted asked, gripping the phone excitedly as Tom and Bud looked on in concern and alarm. "Did he say anything about the deal of his?"
    "Yes," Mrs. Spring replied. "He said we should trust him, this is all in our best interest. He said, ‘You’re his mother—I bet you can talk Ted into doing the right thing, can’t you?’ Then he said we’d be hearing from him soon!"
    Ted did his best to reassure his mother about the mysterious Mr. Hampshire. Nevertheless, the young astronaut-engineer’s brow was creased in a worried frown as he replaced the telephone and related the event to Tom and Bud.
    He had barely finished the story when the telephone rang again. Ted glanced down, then back up at his friends worriedly. "Unidentified caller. What if it’s—"
    Tom held out his hand for the phone. "May I?" Ted handed him the cellphone, and Tom answered with an anonymous, "Hello?"
    A man’s voice cut in, speaking in a high-pitched nasal whine. "Mr. Spring?"
    "No, I’m sorry, he’s—"
    "Why, if it isn’t the talented Mr. Swift. A voice the whole world knows by now, eh? This is Mr. Hampshire," the man replied. "No doubt you know all about who I am and what my business is with Ted Spring. No doubt he’s standing right next to you, in fact. Pass the phone over to him, won’t you?"
    Tom did so. "Just a minute, Mr. Hampshire," Ted said with suspicion. "How did you find out how to reach me? I never gave you this number."
    "That’s of no importance. I’m calling to renew my offer of help in the case of your father’s death. It so happens that I have some new evidence on that crash."
    "Such as?" Ted asked.
    "Evidence which has never been brought out before—and evidence, I might add, which would be very embarrassing to the Swifts."
    "If you expect me to be interested in your offer, Hampshire, don’t play me. What’s this about?"
    The voice gave a low chuckle. "I don’t care to get into it right now, Ted—not with Tom Swift standing there. We have a little privileged attorney-client consulting to do, you and I. Believe me, the cash we’re talking about would make a big difference in your life. Your family’s, too!"
    Ted digested this surprising statement. "And what’s your interest in all this?" he inquired.
    "Would you believe public-spiritedness?" Hampshire laughed, then went on smoothly. "Didn’t think so. But I’ll tell you frankly, we’re going to expose Shopton’s First Family to a little daylight, you and I."
    "I’m not interested," declared Ted firmly, his anger growing.
    "You will be," Hampshire responded. "Just read the papers tomorrow. You’ll be plenty interested—and so will Tom Swift!"

CHAPTER 5
ACCUSATION AND OUTRAGE
    THE CELLPHONE clicked off, and Ted Spring stared at it resting inertly in his hand. "He said—"
    "We could hear," said Bud, face red with anger.
    "I don’t suppose you have any idea what he could be alluding to, do you, Ted?" Tom asked.
    "Not a whiff of one," was the answer. "Seems we’re going to find out tomorrow morning, though."
    And so they did. At breakfast Bud came rushing in with a copy of the morning edition of the Shopton Evening Bulletin, delivered each day to the Citadel by special arrangement. With a growl he held up the front page for Tom, Ted, and Chow to read.
    T.S.E. TO FACE LAWSUIT
Death of Test Pilot May Lead
To Criminal Charges,
Federal Investigation
    Ted Spring was the first to skim through the lead story, written by publisher and editor Dan Perkins, as the others waited in tense silence. "It says something about ‘unnamed private investigators’ turning up evidence of criminal negligence in Dad’s death, stuff that Tom Swift Enterprises ‘hushed up on direct orders from CEO Damon Swift’." He read further, his voice crackling with fury and disgust. "Some bull about defective servos! ‘Has a key Enterprises product evaded Federal safety regulations?’ On and on."
    "That