Nancy Clue Mysteries 1 - The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse (7 page)

Cherry held her breath. The room seemed so still. No one said a word. Finally, her mother broke the silence.

"San Francisco? Isn't that awfully far away?" her mother asked nervously.

She was interrupted by shouts from a group of Cherry's chums, five good-natured, if somewhat noisy, girls who had just pulled up in a canary-yellow sedan. The group had spent all their spare time together in high school, leaving no room for the school activities, football games and Saturday night dates that other girls were so interested in.

Many a time Mrs. Aimless had counseled Cherry that no man would want to marry her if she didn't begin to act more interested in dating, but Cherry had brushed her off with a joking, "So who wants to get married?"

"I suppose marriage isn't for everyone," Mrs. Aimless had told herself. "After all, Gertrude seems happy enough."

Cherry was relieved that her chums had provided her with a polite exit. "Sorry, Mom, but I told the gang to come by after supper. I won't be out late." With this, the pretty young nurse threw a white beaded sweater over her shoulders and flew out the door to join her friends.

Over a chocolate sundae, Cherry filled her friends in on the mysterious events of the last few days. "Although I don't know exactly what's going on, I still have to deliver this package to Oregon. Why, that's halfway to San Francisco. I couldn't change my mind now if I wanted to. Which I don't," she added somewhat ruefully. "All I know is, my parents don't like the idea."

"Oh, go, Cherry, go," said Dessa, a darling brown-eyed girl with a snub nose and a smattering of freckles across her face. "You've got two weeks' pay and a place to stay-why, that head nurse practically ordered you to go!"

"And you know how you love to obey orders, Nurse Aimless," giggled Beth, the athlete of the group, whose strong shoulders attested to her love of swimming. "Cherry, you need a break, and staying here with your family is no vacation," she continued in a more serious tone.

"They're right," broke in Arlene, a raven-haired beauty with a beguiling smile and a forthright manner. "Pleasantville is not exactly the most exciting place on the planet!"

Cherry licked the last bit of chocolate sauce from her spoon, and ordered another sundae. If she was going to stand up to her parents, she'd better get more courage-and quick!

When she arrived home, her mother was sitting at the kitchen table, absent-mindedly looking through a recipe book. Her father was asleep on the davenport, the evening paper spread at his feet. Cherry steeled herself for her mother's reaction to her trip, but before she could open her mouth, her mother surprised her.

"If you're going, you'd better get to bed soon, dear," Mrs. Aimless said, shutting The Joy of Cooking and placing it back on the shelf.

Cherry jumped up and down with glee. "You mean you don't mind? And Father too?"

"I made a deal with your father. He lets you visit Gert, and I promise not to put arsenic in his coffee!" The twinkle in her eye let Cherry in on the joke, and they had a good laugh.

"Oh," squealed Cherry. "There's so much to do! I've got dirty clothes to wash, and I promised Aunt Gert I'd call her tonight."

Her mother interrupted. "While you were out with your friends I did your laundry; it's all ironed and pressed and on your bed. And I called Gert, but she wasn't home."

"That's funny," Cherry said. "Tonight was the night we set aside to talk. She wanted to know exactly when I was arriving so she could be home."

"You know your Aunt Gert sometimes forgets where she's supposed to be. She always has her head in the clouds, just like someone else I know." Mrs. Aimless grinned and shook her head. "You always were like two peas in a pod," she said. "The older you get, the more you become like Gert. Why, I was just telling her last week that when I look at you, sometimes I swear I see her."

Cherry was amazed. "You and Aunt Gert keep in touch?"

Mrs. Aimless smiled. "What your father doesn't know..."

"...won't hurt him!" Cherry grinned, sweeping her mother up in her arms for a quick waltz around the kitchen table. She deposited a dizzy Mrs. Aimless on the yellow Formica countertop.

Cherry hugged her mother, who was turning out to be more of an ally than she had imagined. She tried to put her thanks into words. "I know it's hard for you, with Charley and me so far away..."

Her mother hugged her back, and wiped a little tear from her eye. "I guess we've all got to follow our rainbows, dear. Now, off to bed with you!" she said, playfully pushing Cherry toward the stairs. "Oh, and Cherry, I put that lavender handkerchief back in the pocket of your uniform. Who on earth is M.M.?"

But Cherry wasn't listening. She was too excited to hear anything but the plans buzzing in her head. She didn't know how she was ever going to sleep! "I'm really, truly going to San Francisco," she whispered as she raced up the stairs to her attic room. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling something very special was awaiting her in the city by the bay!

Cherry had set her alarm for six a.m. in order to get an early start on her trip, but when she awoke, she found she was more tired than she had anticipated. "Just ten more minutes' sleep," she groaned, pulling the covers firmly over her head and settling into the soft feather mattress. When she awoke again, her little attic room was flooded with sunlight. The clock read seven-fifteen.

"Goodness!" she cried, bolting out of bed. "I'd better hurry." Cherry quickly bathed and ran a comb through her tousled curls. From her suitcase she selected a bright yellow poplin dress with a flared skirt that she knew would be comfortable to sit in as well as pleasing to the eye. She slipped Lana's book into one of the wide front pockets, grabbed her luggage and ran downstairs, as always taking the steps two at a time.

"Good morning, early bird," her mother teased her sleepyeyed daughter. Mrs. Aimless had tied a white apron over a flowered housecoat and was cutting thick slices of homemade white bread. Cherry's purse was sitting on the kitchen table, its interior clean and dry.

"I'm sending a hamper of food with you," Mrs. Aimless said, making cream cheese and jelly sandwiches to add to the bag of fruit and generous slices of strawberry cake already in the wicker hamper. Cherry assured her that there would be food along the way, but her mother just shook her head.

"You never know what's in restaurant food these days," she said, "especially in those roadside places. One or two eggs?" she asked, holding up a bowl of hard-boiled eggs.

"Two," Cherry said, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Be careful about drinking the water in California. I hear it's full of chemicals. And drive carefully. If you get sleepy, pull off the road. Don't speak to strangers. I've put a couple of clean towels over there on the chair. It's best if you use towels from home."

"Yes, Mother," Cherry said, quickly draining her cup of coffee and snatching a piece of dry toast. Before her mother could talk her into sitting down for a big breakfast, Cherry picked up the hamper of food and her luggage, hugged her mother, and sailed out the door.

"Call me as soon as you get there!" her mother cried after her.

"I will," Cherry said, her mouth full of toast.

"Don't forget what I told you!" Mrs. Aimless cried.

"I won't."

"And have a good time," she waved. But her good wishes came too late, for her daughter was already backing out of the driveway. Sometimes Mrs. Aimless thought her daughter was entirely too independent for her own good, gallivanting around the Northwest the way she did. It pleased her to know that Cherry's twin, Charley, was settled in a good job in the interior design business in New York, even if it was so far away. She did wonder, however, if he was ever going to settle down and get married, or if he was planning on living with that roommate for the rest of his life.

Why, he and Johnny had even bought a house together! She had warned them that someday one of them would marry, and then where would the other one be? But Charley had just laughed and told her not to worry. And she didn't worry as much about Charley as she did about Cherry. After all, twenty-four wasn't old for a boy to be unmarried, considering that they matured later than girls.

Mrs. Aimless poured herself another cup of coffee and opened the morning paper. "Same news as yesterday," she sighed, scanning the front page of the Idaho Daily Gazette.

"Oh, dear!" she cried, "What's this?"

"`The nuns of the Sisters of Mercy convent, located eighty miles north of San Francisco, have been missing for two days and are now feared to be the victims of a mass kidnapping,"' Mrs. Aimless read aloud. A photo of the Mother Superior accompanied the article. "Why, she's very attractive, for a nun," Mrs. Aimless mused. "She could be a movie star!"

"Good thing Cherry didn't see this story," Mrs. Aimless thought. "If she knew there was a mystery brewing near San Francisco, she'd drive twice as fast so she could get in on it," she chuckled. She put the paper aside. "I'll worry about Cherry later," she told herself, getting out her mixing bowls and cake tins. "Right now I've got work to do."

As her mother was stirring angel food cake batter, Cherry was turning onto the main road that would take her out of Pleasantville and towards Oregon. If all went well, she would be in San Francisco late the following night.

"I still haven't called Aunt Gertrude!" she yelped, making a mental note to do so at her first rest stop. She remembered the last time she had seen her aunt, an attractive, lively woman with short wavy black hair and those famous Aimless eyesbig and green and sparkling with life. Gert, the youngest of seven, was only seventeen years older than her look-alike niece.

"We're so much alike, you could be my own daughter," her aunt had murmered when they said good-bye twelve years ago. Cherry hadn't replied, but in her heart she was pleased at being compared with such an intelligent, lively person. "I'd give anything to be even a little like Aunt Gert," Cherry thought with a smile. She flicked on the radio for company and concentrated on the road ahead.

After an uneventful day, Cherry found herself on the outskirts of Warm Springs, where she was to deliver Nurse Marstad's package. During the drive, she had devised a plan to find the recipient of the parcel.

"When I get to the town, I'll go through the telephone directory. If I'm lucky, this Midge person will have her full name and address listed." She pulled off the highway and headed towards the center of town. She was anxious to test her idea and a little afraid that it wouldn't work. "After all, not every person has a telephone," she reminded herself. She crossed her fingers. With Nurse Marstad on vacation, this was the only possible way she could find this Midge person. "It's just got to work!" she exclaimed.

She soon reached the center of town, which was alive with afternoon shoppers strolling under old oak trees. "What a darling little town!" Cherry exclaimed, parking her Buick in a shady spot in front of Mr. Stanley's Sweet Shoppe. She hopped out of her car, smoothed the wrinkles in her dress, and peered in the window. She didn't see a telephone, but she could smell the most delicious aromas coming from inside.

"Perhaps a nutritious snack will calm my nerves," she thought, realizing that many hours had passed since her skimpy breakfast of coffee and dry toast. Once inside the sweet-smelling shop, painted cotton-candy pink, Cherry was greeted by Mr. Stanley himself, dressed in a neat pink and white striped smock.

Cherry took her time selecting an assortment of chocolates. "Coconut cremes or caramels?" she wondered, furrowing her pretty brow. She laughed when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror behind the counter. "I look so serious," she thought. "Just a few days ago, I was making life-or-death decisions, and today I'm selecting candy with the same earnestness!

"Although, when a girl's ready to get her visitor, sometimes chocolate can be pretty serious," Cherry had to admit.

She finally selected a well-rounded assortment of chocolates and paid for them with the money from Nurse Marstad. She leaned on the cool white marble counter, and while she waited for her change, surveyed the neat little store, decorated in many shades of pink. A roll of pink striped paper next to the register gave her an idea. Cherry fished Lana's book from her pocket. "What would be the fee to wrap this?" she asked.