Nancy Clue Mysteries 1 - The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse (20 page)

"I read somewhere that the nuns who sew these eventually go blind because of the little tiny stitches," Lauren said. "Wow, look at this chalice. It's pure gold."

"Oops!" Midge cried. "I knocked over these little white things." She picked up a box containing paper-thin wafers and popped one in her mouth. "Blah," she said. "Too dry."

"Jeepers! It's the body of Christ!" Lauren cried. "Spit it out!"

"Look over here," Jackie said, gesturing Midge and Lauren over to the large round table that dominated the room. She pointed to large sheets of paper containing sketches of a building. "These are the blueprints for that retirement center the church wants to build on this land! " she exclaimed.

The girls studied the sketches thoughtfully. "It looks like they're planning on razing this entire building. They're going to put a golf course right where the vineyards are!"

"And here's the swimming pool. Boy, this whole thing looks like one big playground, doesn't it?"

"Let's see what else they're planning," Jackie said, digging through the pile of papers on the table. "This is a will made out in the name of the Catherine MacCaffry." She skimmed the document. "This is her family land and, according to this will, all of it will go to the church upon her death."

"But it hasn't been signed," Midge pointed out.

"I bet that evil priest is holding the sisters hostage until she signs this!" Jackie exclaimed.

"That's why she ran away to Seattle," Midge murmured. "And somehow, she ended up in Cherry's hospital."

Jackie glared at her. "What do you mean, 'ran away to Seattle'? Who is she? What else are you hiding?" she demanded.

"Oops! Did I forget to mention that Cherry's amnesia patient Lana and the Mother Superior-I mean, this MacCaffry woman-are the same person?" Midge blushed. "You see, the way I figure it..."

A loud scream coming from the chapel interrupted them. Midge whirled around. "What's that darn Lauren up to?" she groaned. "If she doesn't clam up, she's going to give us away!"

Midge and Jackie raced out of the sacristy. They found a wide-eyed Lauren with her hand clasped over her mouth. She looked like she had seen a ghost!

"Pipe down!" Midge hissed.

"But it's real!" Lauren gulped, pointing to a life-sized statue standing next to the altar.

"It's just a statue," Midge said, examining the bulky white stone figure. "You only thought it was a real body because it's dressed in real clothes. Catholics dress up their statues sometimes." She pointed to the gold plaque on the wall next to the figure. "See-it says, 'Saint Kellogg, Patron of the Harvest."'

Although Midge tried to reassure Lauren, she had to admit to herself that the ghostly white figure, with its blank, staring eyes was pretty scary!

Lauren shook her head. "Its face ...I touched it...Look!"

Midge grudgingly stepped closer to the figure. "Lauren, how on earth did you manage to poke a hole in this thing?" Midge touched the crumbling surface of the saint's face. "Why, this is just plaster! It breaks right off. Ugh! It's squishy underneath! Oh, my god, Lauren, you're right! It is real! A real dead man!" Midge jumped back.

Jackie took charge, conducting an expert analysis of the scene. "This is a deceased Caucasian adult male," she declared. "Someone's tried to hide the body by plastering it and wiring the resulting `statue' to the wall ...There's a large dent in the rear portion of his skull. I'd say he died from a blow from a blunt instrument."

She checked his hands. "There's dirt under his nails, which indicates he was probably killed and buried somewhere else, and then dug up and hidden here."

"You're all very bright girls," a sinister male voice rang out from the darkness. "It's just too bad I'm going to have to kill you."

"I can't believe we let those horrible men capture us!" Midge wailed, kicking the cold stone wall of their cell. "We should have just taken our chances and shot our way out," she added angrily.

"Right, Midge. My gun against five heavilyarmed deacons," Jackie said. "We'd all be dead by now. Besides, what makes you think we're going to be trapped in here for long?"

"Oh, I don't know," Midge answered in a sarcastic manner. "Perhaps it's the thick iron door, padlocked behind us. That, and the fact that nobody knows we're here. You said yourself you didn't tell anyone where you were headed, remember?"

Midge began to pace the tiny cell, measuring no more than ten square feet. "I'm acting like a jerk," she admitted. "It's just that being locked up drives me crazy!"

She did the deep-breathing exercises Cherry had taught her during their car trip from Oregon, but they didn't work. "I don't need to relax, darn it, I need to escape!" she thought.

"Let's search for a way out," Lauren suggested. "Maybe we can find a secret passage."

"Don't you think I'd know about it?" Midge snapped. "I mean ...uh...I don't know what I mean," she stammered. Midge slumped to the cold dirt floor. "I am not at my best right now," she apologized.

"How would you know if there were a secret passage here, Midge?" Jackie prodded. "You keep alluding to the fact that you've been here before, yet I have a funny feeling it wasn't for a religious retreat."

"And why does being locked up make you so crazy?" Lauren interjected. "Midge, I think there's something you're not telling us. Now, spill the beans!"

"Spoken like a true detective," Jackie said. "Well, Midge?"

"I really need a cigarette if I'm going to go into all this," Midge stalled.

Lauren produced a squished pack of cigarettes from her overalls pocket. "They're only a few months old," she said. "Here, you can keep `em all."

Midge lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. "Funny, I've been waiting to tell this story for years, but all of a sudden, I feel nervous," she confessed. "Okay, here goes. I haven't always been Midge Fontaine. My real name is Hallie Hoover!"

"Hallie Hoover! You mean the California teenager who was convicted of attempted patricide almost twenty years ago and sentenced to life in prison? The one who escaped from the federal pen after five years, and has been missing ever since?" Jackie cried.

"So I take it you've heard of me?" Midge said in a bemused manner.

"Girl, you were the talk of the West Coast for a long time. Why, every time I acted up, my mother would compare me to you, which secretly pleased me," Jackie grinned.

"You were in jail for five whole years?" Lauren cried. "Five years? Why, that's a whole third of my entire lifetime!"

"Thank you for that reminder," Midge said.

"Oh, gee, Midge, I didn't mean anything by it."

"I know, kid. I just have a hard time thinking about those days. Although, if I hadn't gone to prison, I would have never met Velma."

"Velma's a convict too?" Lauren cried delightedly. "This story is getting better by the moment."

Midge laughed, picturing the pretty Velma behind bars. "I met Velma in jail, but she wasn't behind bars," she said.

"But wait. Let me begin at the beginning." Midge stretched out on the cold stone floor, using her jacket as a pillow. "I think we'll have enough time," she said.

She lit another stale cigarette, and continued.

"Horrible Hallie, the newspapers called me. Said I was the kind of girl who gave teenagers a bad name. I lived in Santa Cruz. Actually, it was a lot like the town Cherry's from. A nice small town. Neat little houses with tidy front yards.

"Except our house wasn't so nice. My dad drank a lot, and when he did, he was horrible to us kids. One day I ran away from home. I took his savings; he kept it in a sock drawer in his bureau. I took his gun, too.

"I went to my best friend's house, a nice Catholic girl named Margaret O'Malley. I just went to say good-bye. I was going to hit the road, ride the rails. I could have just blended right in. My plan was to pass as a boy; I figured it would be safer that way.

"Peg told me about this really sweet nun she knew who really liked to help young girls. While we were talking, my dad showed up at her house and started beating the bejesus out of me.

"So, I shot him, and Peg and I ran. I found out later I didn't kill him, but I came pretty darn close.

"We went to see that nun, and she brought us here. Her aunt-the Mother Superior at that time-is retired now. But for years she was many girls' link with a better life.

"She helped me and Peg disappear. She got papers for us, new identification cards, even money. Peg had her make up a high school diploma, and letters of recommendation, and with it, she got a scholarship to a nursing school in Seattle, where she practices today, as Head Nurse Margaret Marstad.

"In fact, she's Cherry's boss at the hospital."

"Does Cherry know all this?" Jackie cried.

Midge shook her head. "Those of us who have gone through the underground agree to protect one another's identities," Midge said, adding, "I'm only telling you this because I'm sure we're never getting out of here.

"Anyway, I was so grateful to the nuns, I decided to work for them. Believe it or not, I wasn't arrested taking someone across state lines, or carrying forged I.D. papers, or any of the illegal things I used to do. I was picked up during a raid on a bar, and when they ran a check on me, they discovered the old warrant for my arrest for the attempted murder of my father.

"As if he hadn't nearly killed me every time he was drunk," she said bitterly.

"So I was sent to jail, where I met Velma. She was my English teacher. I fell instantly in love, and we began a torrid affair from afar. She helped me escape," Midge said proudly.

"No one ever suspected her. As Velma says, everyone just thinks of her as an old maid school teacher. That term sounds so dry. Not at all like Velma," Midge chuckled.

"And now it ends here. Funny, I'm back at the place where my freedom began. And except for a few hard times, it wasn't too bad a ride."

"We're going to get out of here," Jackie assured her. "And when we do, I'm going to destroy all the records on you, Midge. I have friends all over the state. When we're finished, there'll be no trace of you in any police file anywhere."

"Let's search for a way out!" Lauren cried.

"The moon's full, so we have some light," Midge said hopefully, joining the search. They ran their hands over the rough stone walls. "Isn't it odd that a convent would have prison cells?" Jackie commented.

"Well, this is a cell, but it's not for prisoners. Twenty years ago, these were the nuns' bedrooms," she said. "In fact, I spent my first night in this convent in a room just like this."

"Gosh, you've lived so long and had so many adventures," Lauren said breathlessly.

"Haven't you had any adventures yet?" Jackie teased.

"Just one. My best friend and I were fooling around but my mother walked in on us. I told her we were conducting an experiment for health class, but I don't think she believed me. She's watched me like a hawk ever since."

"So how come they left you alone when they went on vacation?"

"Oh, I have a babysitter. My gym teacher, Miss Rutherford. She's probably asleep, though. She's pretty old-at least thirty-five."

"Thirty-five!" Midge gasped. "And she's still teaching? At that age?"

"You're making fun of me!" Lauren cried, stamping her foot. As she did, a small stone fell out of the wall to reveal a tiny opening.

"Lauren, you doll!" Jackie cried. Midge shone the flashlight down the opening. The small opening was narrow-not big enough for a hand-yet seemingly endless.

Midge peered into it. "What could possibly fit through here?" she asked. Just as she did, something came running out at them!

The three girls jumped back as a small brown mouse flew out of the wall and landed at their feet.

"Just like home," said Midge, kneeling on the cold stone floor. She put out her hand and the mouse jumped into her palm. It scurried up her arm to her shoulder, and nibbled on her ear.

"Oh, it's tame," Lauren said, petting the tiny, light brown mouse.

The mouse seemed to enjoy the attention. It jumped into Midge's hair and began to squeak. Midge pulled it from her hair and placed it in her palm, rubbing its stomach. "Look, it's wearing a thin silver chain around its neck!" she cried. "She's definitely trained. That gives me an idea. But first, I need a pen."

Lauren reached into her baggy overalls and pulled out an assortment of writing tools.

"Got any paper in there?" Midge asked.

Lauren shook out the entire contents of her pocket, but was unable to find even a scrap of paper.

"I hate to do this," Midge said, taking Lana's book from her pocket. "But it looks like this is the only paper we've got."

"Don't tell anyone," she said as she gently peeled back the end paper from the inside cover of the book. She found that the paper had been glued using a minimum of paste, and pulled up easily from the inside cover. "It comes right off," she said happily. "I can probably fix it later, and no one will ever know."

She worked the paper until she could tear off a two-inch square. On a scrap of the paper, Midge wrote:

"My nickname for Velma," she explained with a sheepish grin.