Carolyn Keene_Nancy Drew Mysteries 050 (14 page)

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Authors: The Double Jinx Mystery

Tags: #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Mystery & Detective, #Juvenile Fiction, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Mystery Fiction, #Women Sleuths, #Adventure Stories, #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Mystery and Detective Stories, #Mystery & Detective Stories, #Nature, #Birds & Birdwatching, #Birds

BOOK: Carolyn Keene_Nancy Drew Mysteries 050
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Nancy and Ned smiled. They loved the intense-ness of Hannah’s loyalty. Ned, chuckling, told the housekeeper he was beginning to agree that somebody had put a double jinx on Nancy and himself.
“If I were superstitious,” said Hannah, “I could well believe that. First you both came down with ornithosis, then somebody flings you into a river.”
Ned sighed. “Three times is out. I wonder what the next jinx will be.”
“Well, I certainly hope this is the end,” Hannah stated firmly. “By the way, I was reading something interesting the other day. Did you know that certain primitive people regarded their names as an integral part of their souls? To protect themselves from witchcraft, they kept their real names secret. They believed that no one could jinx them while they were using a fictitious name.”
Nancy and Ned said they had never heard about this, though many of the common superstitions were familiar to them.
“I like the one about a person’s left shoulder being the bad side of him,” Nancy remarked. “That’s why someone, seeing a new moon for the first time over his left shoulder, throws salt over that shoulder to reverse any bad luck it might bring.”
Ned said he preferred the one about a person carrying a rabbit’s left hind foot for good luck. “I see one dangling now and then in a person’s car.” Then he asked, his eyes twinkling, “Knocking on wood is supposed to bring luck. Does this idea come from woodpeckers pecking at tree bark, hoping to have luck finding a juicy insect?”
Nancy and Hannah laughed. Then the housekeeper changed the subject.
“A phone call came today for you and the message was that tomorrow morning you will have a surprise. Now don’t ask any more. That’s all I can tell you.”
It was not until midmorning the next day that they found out what it was all about. The front doorbell rang and both of them hurried to answer it. Bess, George, and two athletic-looking blond young men, Burt Eddleton and Dave Evans, who dated the cousins frequently, stood before them.
“Surprise!” they exclaimed. Bess added, “We’ve brought reinforcements and we’re ready for a sleuthing job.”
Nancy cried out, “How wonderful to see you!”
Ned kissed the girls and slapped the boys on the back.
Mr. Drew was still at home and said he was delighted to hear about the reinforcements. The group sat down for a second breakfast snack and discussed the mystery.
“What I’d like you to do is visit the High Rise Construction Company office and see what you can learn,” Mr. Drew said. “Also I’d like you to investigate the sites on which Mr. Wright plans to build. I have a list of them.”
The lawyer thought it best if the boys went to the High Rise company alone. Nancy and the other girls could visit the development areas and find out all they could about how the property had been acquired.
When the group was about to leave the house, the telephone rang. Nancy answered and the others heard her say, “I have nothing to tell you, and if you have finished, I’ll say good-by.” She hung up.
“Who was that?” her father asked.
Nancy explained that it was Mr. Wright, who had told her he had to pay a high sum to bail out his employee. “Then he said, ‘If you and your friend don’t retract your charge against Nat Banner, you’ll be sorry!’” Nancy added with determination, “Well, I won’t pay any attention to him,” she concluded.
“He can’t scare me either,” said Ned. “Incidentally, while I’m at the High Rise office, I’d better not let him see me.”
The others, however, expressed alarm. Mr. Drew begged his daughter and her friends to take extra precautions. They promised, then left the house. The boys went off in Burt’s car, which would not be recognized by anyone connected with the High Rise personnel.
Nancy, Bess, and George headed for the first site on Mr. Drew’s list. They could find nothing wrong or underhanded about the purchase, and the sellers had been willing to part with their property.
Another place was owned by a widow who did not want to move but had been told she could live on the property for two more years.
Next the three young detectives reached a retirement home for women. No vehicles were allowed beyond the fenced-in grounds, so Nancy parked outside.
The visitors gave their names to a gatekeeper and at his request Nancy stated her business. He made a brief telephone call, then waved them inside the grounds.
As the trio walked up a sweeping driveway, they came to a sweet-faced elderly woman seated under a tree. The girls smiled at her.
“I’m Mrs. Carten,” she spoke up. “Have you come to visit someone at our lovely home?”
“Not exactly,” Nancy replied. “We heard that this place is about to be sold. Where are you all to be moved?”
Tears trickled down the woman’s cheeks. “It is worse than that. A man bought the mortgage from the bank and now he has foreclosed on the property. We will have to move at once. I don’t know what will become of us.”
The girls were dismayed to hear this. They expressed their sympathy, then George asked, “Is the man’s name Mr. Wright?”
“Yes, it is,” Mrs. Carten answered.
Nancy suggested the girls talk to the owner, Mrs. Sutton. She found her seated at a desk in a large cheerful office. Mrs. Sutton confirmed the story.
“All of us who live here are heartbroken,” she said.
“We’re very sorry,” Bess spoke up. “Has Mr. Wright actually foreclosed?”
“It can happen at any time,” the woman replied.
The phone on her desk rang. Mrs. Sutton answered and in a moment drew in her breath. She put the phone down, then burst into tears.
“Forgive me, please,” she said. “It has happened. Mr. Wright has given formal notice of a foreclosure.”
“Perhaps I can help you,” said Nancy. “May I make a call?” The woman nodded.
Nancy dialed her father’s office. Quickly she told him where she was and what had happened. “Oh, Dad, please try to do something fast!”
CHAPTER XIX
Lost Loot
 
 
 
“I’LL see what I can do about the retirement home foreclosure at once!” Mr. Drew promised Nancy. “Suppose you go over to Thurstons and see how they’re making out. I’ll call you there.”
Nancy turned to Mrs. Sutton and told her she hoped to have good news in a short time.
“Try not to worry,” she begged her.
Nancy, Bess, and George said good-by and set off for the farm. Upon arriving they rang the front doorbell. Receiving no response, the three were worried that Mrs. Thurston might be alone and ill, so they walked in.
“Listen!” Bess said. “I hear Mrs. Thurston mumbling something.”
Nancy called out hello but there was no answer. The girls walked into the living room. At one end sat Mrs. Thurston in her wheelchair.
She was alongside a table on which stood a cup and saucer. The woman was gazing into it intently. Although the mumbling was louder and clearer now, the girls could not discern what she was saying.
“Tea leaves,” Bess ventured.
Nancy had paused, uncertain what to do. She did not want to frighten Mrs. Thurston, who seemed to be in a trance. To her surprise the woman swung her wheelchair around and looked straight at the visitors.
“I knew you were coming,” she said, smiling. “The tea leaves told me so.”
George opened her mouth to make a retort, but was warned against speaking by a stem look from Nancy.
“Hello,” the young detective said. “How are you feeling?”
Mrs. Thurston gave her usual answer, “Not very well.” Then she added, “Your visit has been the first nice thing that has happened here today.”
The girls said thank you and then waited for Mrs. Thurston to proceed.
“A little while ago Rausch was in here talking to me. Suddenly he looked out the open window over there and without saying a word stepped right through it. You know that brings bad luck. One should never step out of a window.”
The remark struck Bess as funny. Giggling, she said, “Especially if it’s a second-floor window.”
Nancy and George laughed too, but Mrs. Thurston saw nothing amusing about it. “The window Rausch left from has only a short drop. Oh, Oscar and I have had so many unfortunate things happen. Now I know there are going to be more!”
Nancy went to the woman’s side and patted her shoulder. “Please try to think of pleasant things,” the young detective said “I’m sure that many of these premonitions of yours have never come true.”
Mrs. Thurston had to admit this was correct but kept pointing out the recent bad luck they had had.
Nancy was curious to know why Rausch should have left the room so hurriedly and in such an eccentric way. She decided to find him. Nancy excused herself and hurried toward the cages at the rear of the house. Rausch was putting fresh water into a long trough for a flock of gaily colored parrots, white cockatoos, and green parakeets with dark-gray heads.
“Hi!” she called out. “Did something happen?”
The farmer’s assistant looked up. “I’ll say it did. I got here just in time to keep these birds from being poisoned.”
“Poisoned!” Nancy exclaimed. “By whom?”
Rausch said he did not know but thought the culprit was probably Slick Fingers.
“While I was talking to Mrs. Thurston,” he said, “I looked out the window. A man was sneaking along beside this cage. He had a watering can with a long spout and was pouring some dark-colored liquid into this trough.”
Nancy was horrified. “How awful!” she cried out. “Are you sure you emptied out the poison before any of the birds took a drink?”
Rausch was positive because he had acted immediately. “I went in, grabbed up the trough, and ran outside with it,” he explained. “I dumped the water far away. Then I took off after that fiend, but I didn’t catch him. He disappeared toward the road.”
Nancy remarked that Slick Fingers probably had a car parked there. “I’ll look around,” she said.
She took a magnifying glass from her skirt pocket and began to hunt for footprints or other clues to the intruder. In a few minutes she saw a white envelope lying partially under a bush. She picked it up and found that the envelope was sealed. There was no identifying mark of any kind on it.
“Considering how important every potential piece of evidence is in this case, I guess it would be all right for me to open it,” the young detective rationalized.
Nancy slit open the envelope. Peering inside, she was amazed to see a large quantity of one hundred and five hundred dollar bills. There was also a smaller envelope. Nancy removed it.
“Oh!” she murmured.
On the front side was the now-familiar sign of the circle with the cross in the center!
Nancy wondered if Merv Marvel had had a hand in this. And was Slick Fingers working with him?
Nancy now opened the smaller envelope and stared unbelievingly. Inside lay several rings set with gorgeous gems.
“Stolen?” she wondered. “I must report my find to the police at once.”
Nancy hurried back to the house. Rausch was not in sight so she could not tell him about the amazing discovery. She burst in upon Bess, George, and Mrs. Thurston and showed them what she had found. Next Nancy dashed to the telephone and called Chief Pepper.
The officer was thunderstruck by her report and started to praise the young detective. With a quick thank-you she went on, “Don’t you think that the person who dropped the envelope will return to hunt for it?”
“No doubt about it. I’ll send some men out there to capture him.”
Chief Pepper requested Nancy to go at once to the spot where she had found the envelope and lay the large one, empty, back in place.
“Are you planning to stay at the farm?” he asked.
“At least until my father phones, but—” After a pause she went on, “If it’s all right, we’d like to see you catch Slick Fingers or anyone else who comes for the envelope.”
“After you put it back, please stay in the house,” the chief said firmly. “If anyone comes to call, keep him there. If we nab the suspect we’ll blow a whistle, then you can come out.”
Nancy ran to place the envelope near the bush, then dashed back to the house. When she relayed Chief Pepper’s instructions to Bess, George, and Mrs. Thurston, she was surprised that the woman reacted so calmly to the tense situation.
Bess motioned for Nancy to come out to the kitchen. When the two girls reached it, she said excitedly, “I think George and I have talked Mrs. Thurston out of her superstitions and beliefs in omens and jinxes.”
Nancy smiled. “If you’ve done that, you’re both wonders. I guess our visits have had a good effect on her, after all.”
She returned to the living room and the longer she talked with Mrs. Thurston, the more she became convinced that indeed Bess and George had accomplished a miracle. Mrs. Thurston joked and laughed and seemed genuinely excited over the thought of a thief being caught on their property, and she showed no anxiety about his presence.
A short while later Oscar returned from an interview with Mr. Drew. He said Nancy’s father had gathered important information from papers Mr. Thurston had forgotten about. They would greatly help his case against the High Rise company. When he finished telling the others, the bird owner suddenly turned to his wife.
She smiled at him and said, “Oscar, these girls have been a blessing in disguise to us. See how I’ve changed? I’m not worried any more!”
Oscar looked sober for a moment, then he beamed, crossed the room and kissed his wife fervently. “Thank goodness,” he said.
The girls discreetly left the room and went to the kitchen to prepare some food. Later, while the group was eating, Mr. Drew called.
“Good news! I was able to get a postponement on that retirement home foreclosure.”
“Great!” said Nancy. She now told him about the envelope she had found with the symbol on it and of Rausch’s suspicion that Slick Fingers had tried to poison the parrots and other birds in the same cage.

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