Make No Mistake (14 page)

Nancy had recognized Tony Giralda's dogs, Fred and Max, at once. Her experience with the dogs had shown her that they weren't fierce, but Loomis didn't know that. He had scrambled over the sofa and was cowering against the wall in panic.

That took care of one criminal, she thought, but there was still one more.

Nancy spun around and looked for Gary, who was edging away from the group. Seeing her, he took off at a run toward the rear door, the one Loomis must have used to get in unseen by
Nancy. Nancy sprinted after him, catching up to him just before he reached the doorway and immobilizing him with a quick judo kick to his side. Gary let out a groan as he fell and lay curled up on the floor, clutching his ribs.

“Way to go, Nancy!” a deep voice called out behind her.

Turning, she saw that Tony Giralda had come into the library. Mrs. Adams was there, too, and she and Bess were standing close together on the opposite side of the room from Fred, Max, and Loomis. They seemed to be as frightened as Loomis was of the big dogs, who were now standing with their paws up on the sofa and growling deep in their throats.

“Hello there, Mr. Loomis, glad you could be here,” Tony said, going over to the sofa.

“Someone should call the police,” Nancy said.

“Over my dead body,” Loomis said, but his voice was shaky.

“That can be arranged,” Tony told him. “Fang and Claw here are trained attack dogs. I have only to say the word and they'll tear you to shreds.” Nancy had to suppress a laugh at the aliases Tony had given Fred and Max. “I called the police as soon as I found Mrs. Adams tied up in the kitchen.”

Nancy saw that Gary was getting to his feet, still clutching his side, and she gestured for him to walk over and stand by the couch, where Fred and Max could keep an eye on him, too.

Fred was still making that deep, menacing sound in his throat, and Nancy hoped he wouldn't stop—at least until the police showed up.

Holding out her hand, Nancy spoke to Loomis in a firm voice. “I'd like my tape recorder back, please. Hand it over to me very carefully. We don't want to alarm Fang.”

Loomis held the minirecorder out and tossed it on the couch. “It won't do you much good,” he scoffed. “It hit those flagstones pretty hard before. The thing's probably broken.”

“I wouldn't be so sure,” Nancy said, picking it up. She rewound the tape a little and then hit the Play button. Bess's voice came into the room, loud and clear. “Was it your father who thought of having a cake the shape of a giant football, or was it you?”

Behind Nancy, Bess giggled nervously at the sound of her own voice.

“That doesn't prove anything,” Gary said. “Who remembers a cake from years ago? You'd be laughed out of court with that evidence.”

“Maybe you've forgotten all the things you just confessed when you thought it didn't matter, since you planned on leaving us to die in the snow,” Nancy pointed out.

“
I
haven't forgotten,” Bess called from behind Nancy.

“We'll both testify to everything in court,” Nancy said. “You two are going to jail for a long time.”

Loomis's face had turned a deep purple color. With a cry of rage, he lunged at Nancy, hands raised, but she ducked aside easily. Loomis crouched, ready to spring at her, but he hesitated as the high-pitched whine of a siren filtered into the room.

A moment later two squad cars with flashing red lights raced up the drive and screeched to a halt in front of the house.

“The police!” Mrs. Adams exclaimed. “And not a moment too soon.”

• • •

“Well, it's been quite an evening!” Mrs. Adams said. She, Nancy, Bess, and Tony sat around the kitchen table. None of them had wanted to remain in the library after the police took Gary Page and Jake Loomis away.

“We're lucky it ended the way it did,” Nancy said, taking a sip of her cider. Mrs. Adams had made a big pot of it, and now the scent of cloves and cinnamon filled the air.

“It wasn't all luck, dear,” Mrs. Adams reminded her. “The police were delighted that you had that tape.

“I'm just glad it's over. I thought I would drop dead of fear when I saw those beasts,” the housekeeper added, chuckling. “I thought they were the most fearsome-looking attack dogs I'd ever seen.”

“That makes two of us,” Bess said. “Who would have known they were such sweethearts?”

Nancy glanced affectionately at the big dogs, who were lying contentedly at Tony's feet, chomping on pieces of beef bone that Mrs. Adams had put in soup bowls for them.

“They deserve that reward for coming to the rescue,” she said. “Which reminds me, how did you know to come here, Tony?”

“I started thinking of that phone call you had me make,” he began, reaching down to pet Max. “The more I thought about it, the more dangerous I thought the situation was. I went to your house to warn you, but your housekeeper said you weren't home. That's when I got a pretty good idea of where you were, and I drove out here. I saw your car parked down at the end of the drive, and I had a feeling—”

“A gut feeling?” Nancy asked, grinning.

“Right, a feeling you were in danger. I parked down by your car, then came up to the house by foot. I saw through the window what was going on. Luckily the side door was open. Anyway, when I got inside, I found Mrs. Adams tied up in the kitchen.” He held up his hands and smiled. “The rest is history.”

“But how did you get Fred and Max to act so threatening?” Bess asked, a puzzled look on her face.

Tony reached down again to pat the big dogs, who had finished chewing on their bones and were sleeping with their muzzles resting on their huge front paws. “There's one thing that drives
Fred and Max crazy. They can't stand getting a bath, and always put up a big fight.”

“So you dumped some water on them, and presto—enter Fred and Max, barking ferociously,” Nancy guessed. “I was wondering why the fur around their heads was wet.”

“I didn't like doing it,” said Tony, “but I figured it would be the best way to stall until the police showed up. By the way, who locked you in my office with Fred and Max the night we went skating?”

“It had to be Gary, since Jake wasn't around then. He must have followed me to see what I was up to,” Nancy replied.

“I want to thank you for everything, Tony,” Bess said. “If it weren't for you, Nancy and I might have ended up as icicles a hundred miles from anywhere.”

“My mistake was in thinking that Loomis wouldn't get here until later,” Nancy said. “Tony told him seven o'clock in our phone call, but he obviously decided not to wait until then. In fact, I think he was already here. I bet he never left the area after causing our sleigh accident yesterday.”

Bess's blue eyes went wide. “You mean he's been here all along?” she asked.

“Not here at Glover's Corners, but close by. There are lots of motels around.”

“He must have called his office for his messages,” said Tony, “and the receptionist said that
stuff about his client in River Heights having trouble with his garden.”

“And now his car's out in
our
garden,” Mrs. Adams said. “I do hope the police will take it away.”

Bess looked at the housekeeper and asked, “Where will you go, Mrs. Adams? When all this is over, I mean.”

“I imagine I'll go to Florida,” Mrs. Adams told her. “I have a sister there, you know. Besides, the winters here are beginning to get to me. Old bones don't like the cold as much as young ones do.

“Still,” Mrs. Adams went on, on a dreamier note, “it was lovely, having you all here again. I suppose I was fooling myself to think we could bring the old days back.”

“But it
was
like the old days,” Bess insisted.

“No, dear,” corrected Mrs. Adams, “it only seemed like them. In the old days that handsome young man who skated with you had a good heart. Matt was a wonderful person, just like his father. The man out on the pond this time was wicked, through and through.”

She turned shining eyes on Nancy, Bess, and Tony. “But thanks to you, he'll get what he deserves.”

“You bet,” said Bess, grinning. “He might have been hoping for ten to twenty million, but now he'll get ten to twenty years!”

W
ELL,” SAID
T
ONY,
scraping his chair back, “I have to get back to my office.”

“We should go, too,” Nancy said to Bess. “I'd like to go to my house and tell my dad the case is over. We could stop by to pick up George on the way.”

Nancy, Bess, and Tony hugged Mrs. Adams, then trudged down the long drive to their cars.

“Nancy?” Bess asked after Tony had driven off. Nancy saw that there was a wistful look in her friend's eyes. “Weren't you ever taken in by Matt—I mean, Gary Page? Not even for the tiniest minute?”

“Sure,” Nancy answered. “Especially when we were out on the pond, in the moonlight, and we
were having so much fun. I was just as fooled as anyone.”

Bess sighed.

“Don't feel bad, Bess. You really wanted it to be true that Matt was alive. And Gary Page put on a really convincing act. He was charming, handsome, generous—he said and did everything exactly right. No one could ever blame you for believing in him.”

Bess smiled sadly. “When he fell for that lie about the cake,
I
was the one who felt like a fool at first. I mean, I actually thought I could fall in love with that guy! But then I just got madder and madder at him for being so deceitful.” She shook her head. “What a jerk.”

Nancy gave Bess a warm smile. She knew Bess must feel sad that Matt had turned out to be a fake, but at least she was mad at him, too.

Nancy and Bess climbed into the Mustang and went to pick up George. As the three girls then drove toward the Drews', Nancy and Bess told George what had happened out at Glover's Corners.

“You're kidding!” George exclaimed. “I can't believe I missed the wrap-up of the whole case!”

“I wouldn't have minded missing it a bit,” said Bess. “It was pretty scary.”

“It was even scarier if you knew Fred and Max's true nature,” Nancy added with a laugh. “I was afraid they'd start wagging their tails and making friends with those goons.”

The lights were on at the Drews' house, and Carson Drew greeted the girls with a big smile as they came in the front door.

“The police chief just called and told me what happened,” he said. “He said to tell you that Jake Loomis and Gary Page both gave signed confessions.” Carson smiled proudly at his daughter. “The police have an open-and-shut case. Page and Loomis will be going to jail, I can promise you that.”

“Great!” Nancy said. She and Bess sat on the den sofa, while George settled herself in an easy chair.

“By the way,” Carson went on, “that was clever of you to have Tony Giralda's guard dogs to protect you. Otherwise you would have been in great danger.”

The three girls looked at one another, then dissolved in laughter, leaving Carson to stare at them and shake his head.

“There's one thing I don't understand,” Bess said, still giggling a little. “How could Gary Page have aced that lie-detector test?”

“I don't understand it either,” Nancy put in. “I know they're not completely reliable, but how could he have done so well? And what made him so eager to take it, when he knew he was lying?”

“I have a theory about it,” Mr. Drew said. “The conspiracy to commit fraud between Gary Page and Jake Loomis was no small thing. It was
planned on a grand scale. If it succeeded, they would split a huge fortune.

“They were smart enough to know they couldn't carry it off without a lot of preparation. In a sense, Gary went into training as an athlete would.”

“He went into training to
become
Matt,” Nancy said, nodding. “That makes sense.”

“Yes,” her father continued. “To become Matt. Not to imitate him perfectly, but to
be
Matthew Glover for the rest of his life. He submerged himself in so much detail, he worked so hard at being Matt, I think in the end he might really have believed he
was
Matt.”

“Then why did the test indicate he was lying about having been in Colorado?” Nancy asked.

“It turns out he never had been in Colorado. He's from Nebraska. He did work on a paper in Iowa City, but he's never been west of Omaha.”

“Why should that make any difference?” George wanted to know. “He lied about everything else easily enough. Why couldn't he lie about being in Colorado?”

“I think I know,” Nancy said. “Colorado, the accident itself, wasn't a part of his training with Loomis. Why should it have been? He'd had amnesia, and even if he snapped out of it when he saw his father's obituary, he might not remember the actual accident, anyway.”