Power of Suggestion (14 page)

“Well, Miss Drew, I certainly did not expect you to arrive before me. Perhaps you would be so kind as to explain how you got into a locked building, as well as your cryptic remarks over the telephone this evening.”

With a sudden gasp, Nancy leapt out of the recliner. Professor Edberg was standing in the doorway of the lab.

Tonight the professor was dressed casually, in jeans, boots, and a bulky blue parka. A knit cap was pulled down over his ears. Glimpsing the menacing look in his eyes, Nancy hoped that she'd been right to take the risk of confronting him.

“How I got into the building is unimportant, Dr. Edberg,” Nancy said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “I'm sure you are much more interested in my purpose in meeting you.”

The professor closed the door behind him and took several steps toward her. “You said you had information about Wayne's death.”

“That's right, I do—information that concerns you directly. You see, I've discovered who killed him.”

Edberg laughed. “Come now, my dear, that's
old news. If you've brought me out this late just to rehash this dreadful case, I'm going to be quite angry.” He turned to go. “I've already told you how sorry I am for your friend Parker Wright, but after all, he has only himself to blame.”

“Parker isn't the killer, and you know it!” Nancy said sharply.

Edberg turned on his heel. “Oh?” he said, a hard edge creeping into his voice. He took a step closer to her. “Since you're such a clever detective, suppose you tell me what it is you think I know.”

Nancy gave a matter-of-fact shrug. “You killed Wayne when he discovered that you were falsifying the results of your study,” she told him.

Edberg's change of expression was terrifying. His face turned a blazing crimson and became contorted with rage. His dark beard bristled. “Why, you—” he growled, as his fists clenched.

Nancy held up her hands. “Hey, take it easy!” she said. “I'm not trying to get you into trouble. I know what's at stake here, and I don't blame you. Besides”—she dropped her voice to a confidential whisper—“Parker Wright doesn't mean much to me anyway. After all, I just met him on Thursday. I could forget what I know—if someone made it worth my while.”

“What about the rest of your friends?” Dr. Edberg asked, arching a brow. “That blond girl who was with you the other day? And your boyfriend?”

Nancy gave a dismissive wave of her hand.
“They're so naive. I haven't told them anything. This is between you and me. Let them think this is one case that beat me! I only have a couple of questions.”

Edberg shot her an icy smile. “I could see right away that you're a bright girl, Nancy,” he said. “Perhaps we should both drop our guard and play straight with each other. Now, what is it you want to ask me?”

“Well, I know how much this project is worth. Is Boyd paying you to falsify data? Or were you just going to take a percentage of the government contracts?”

After a long hesitation, the professor replied, “Both.”

“Boyd was in on Wayne's murder, then?” Nancy pressed.

“No, of course not!”

“Then what was he doing on campus Thursday night? Dave Webb saw him.”

Edberg shrugged. “He just stopped by to give me my monthly payoff. After Dave and I separated, I drove out of the parking lot, then came back to the psych building to meet Boyd. I took the money, and then he left. I never mentioned Wayne to him—I'm sure he has no idea I killed him.”

Nancy tried not to show her triumph. She had actually gotten Edberg to admit to the murder! She could see that he considered himself very clever. He was actually enjoying telling her about his criminal activities.

“So you didn't return home, as you told the police,” Nancy said. “How did you get your wife to lie for you?” she asked.

Professor Edberg laughed. “Actually, it was quite simple. She didn't know she was lying! I've been hypnotizing her for years. A word or two whispered in her ear, and she really believed I was home, taking a shower, at the very time poor Wayne was being shot.”

Nancy took a deep breath before asking her next question. “Why did you need to kill Wayne?”

“Good question,” he said, smiling at her as if she were one of his students. “Wayne really was a wonderful assistant. If only he'd been willing to go along. But his foolish ethics wouldn't permit it. You see, it's really his own fault that he's dead.”

Edberg gave Nancy a shifty, confidential look. “Wayne came to me more than a week ago. I had been watching him, of course, and knew that his suspicions had started much earlier. He said he thought I'd made some honest mistakes, and he wanted to warn me that my research was flawed. Such a good student, worrying about his old professor! That's when I took him into my confidence. I told him about the bribes Boyd was paying me to alter the results of the study and said that he could get his share, too.”

Nancy didn't like the evil glint that had come into the professor's eyes as he spoke. But she felt that as long as she kept him talking, he probably
wouldn't do anything to harm her. “Why didn't Wayne turn you in as soon as he knew about the fraud?” she asked.

“He liked me too much,” Dr. Edberg said with an amused laugh. “He thought he could convince me to turn my back on millions of dollars! That's what my share will be worth when Positive Tapes gets those fat government contracts.”

He shook his head sadly. “But things could never be the same between Wayne and me. The tension those last few days was dreadful. On Wednesday he told me he was going to blow the whistle and bring me up on academic charges to the faculty ethics committee. The fool thought I would just sit back and let him ruin my entire career! I knew what I had to do, and it all went perfectly—until that weakling, Wright, refused to pull the trigger.”

“I wondered about that,” Nancy said. “I mean, that hypnosis trick was really smart, but why did you have to use Parker?”

Dr. Edberg shrugged. “Once Wayne expressed his initial doubts, I thought
I
might eventually have to kill Wayne. I needed someone for a patsy, and Parker was the natural choice.” He paused thoughtfully before going on. “It was such a good plan. I waited in the observation room. I knew Parker was primed and ready—I'd been hypnotizing him for days.”

“But I thought he met with you only once a week,” Nancy cut in, shooting Edberg a puzzled glance.

“That's all he remembered,” Edberg said, a sly smile on his face. “Actually he was here every day last week, as well as the week before.”

Nancy nodded her understanding. “But you gave him posthypnotic commands not to remember those sessions.” She couldn't believe how twisted Edberg was. He'd manipulated everyone around him without any concern for what it might do to them.

“Exactly!” the professor replied proudly. “I even gave him false memories to account for the lost time.”

A dark frown came over his face as he added, “But then Parker balked at shooting Wayne—which I should have anticipated, of course. As you may know, a person who has been hypnotized is merely in an altered state of consciousness and won't do anything under hypnosis that is against his or her ethics or beliefs. However, I was counting on the fact that the hostility between Parker and Wayne was so great that Parker would be willing to kill Wayne. He was not. Imagine my frustration—I had to come out, grab the gun away from him, and shoot Wayne myself! Still, it all worked out.”

Nancy faced the professor squarely. “Except for me,” she said.

“Except for you,” he agreed. “Now, what am I going to do about you?”

“Why don't you cut me in on some of the money?” Nancy suggested.

“Oh, no,” Edberg said, shaking his head.
“That won't work. It's blackmail, you see, and I could never trust you to keep quiet. You're too willing to sell out Parker, who is supposed to be your friend. You wouldn't hesitate to turn me over once you had your money. No, Nancy, I'm afraid there's only one thing I can do about you.”

His right hand dipped into his jacket pocket and immediately reappeared, clutching a small automatic pistol.

Professor Edberg pointed the pistol at Nancy, an evil smile on his face. “Say goodbye, Nancy Drew.”

A
FEELING
of dread welled up in Nancy as she stared at the pistol.

“Wait!” she exclaimed. “Before you shoot me, there's one more thing I need to tell you!” She knew she would have to talk fast if she wanted to stay alive.

Edberg's eyes narrowed. “These are going to be among your very last words—choose them wisely.”

“How are you going to explain
this
murder?” she challenged.

“There won't be anything to explain,” the professor said, waving the gun in the air. “No one knows you came here. My car is just outside. We'll take a nice little drive out of town. After I
shoot you, I'll dump your body in the woods. No doubt someone will report you missing, but no one will even find your body until the spring thaw. Now, what is it you have to tell me?”

Nancy took a deep breath. “Just that it's all over—give yourself up!”

Edberg guffawed with laughter. “Oh, come now, Miss Drew! You can do better than that!”

“You don't believe me?”

“Of course not!” he scoffed.

“Okay, then—” She hoped this would work. “Hit it, guys!” she cried out.

A loud staccato crackle rippled out from the two loudspeakers on the walls. Startled, Edberg jerked his head toward the noise. Then the professor's voice boomed out: “I had to come out, grab the gun away from him, and shoot Wayne myself.”

Edberg gaped at Nancy, his face purple with rage. “What have you done? Who's in there?” he demanded, looking at the two-way mirror.

“That's your confession, Professor!” Nancy told him. “Every word recorded on your own equipment, in your own lab.”

“You little fool! Do you think you can get away with this?” he asked, raising his voice. “You're all fools. There's no way out of that observation booth except through here. I'll kill you all. Now, come out of there!”

When no one emerged from the control room, he said, “All right then, I'm coming in.” Edberg
gestured at Nancy with his gun. “Move.” Reaching out with his free hand, he grabbed her shoulder, spun her around to face the door, and gave her a shove.

Nancy was surprised at how strong he was. She stumbled toward the door to the observation booth.

“Open it!” Edberg ordered.

Nancy took a deep breath. Ned was resourceful, she told herself. He'd think of something. She opened the door.

The observation room was dark, she saw. She couldn't see the guys, but she was acutely aware that Edberg was right behind her, his gun poking her in the small of the back. He gave her another shove and ordered, “Step in and turn on the light.”

Nancy flicked on the light in the little room. Edberg pushed her in, following close behind her. He blinked in surprise, and Nancy took two steps back and spun around to face him.

Except for Nancy and Edberg, the room was empty. The guys weren't there! The tape of Edberg's confession continued to play.

“What's going on?” Dr. Edberg demanded.

Nancy was wondering the same thing. Before she could say anything, a voice spoke from
above
them.

“Peekaboo!”

Startled, Edberg looked up. The voice was coming from a wall speaker. Suddenly the chair
at the console was propelled across the room, and the professor jumped out of the way. Nancy saw Parker scrunched under the console table, microphone in hand.

Nancy didn't waste a second. As Parker leapt out from under the console, Nancy lashed out with a terrific karate kick, sending the gun flying from Dr. Edberg's hand. At the same moment, Ned jumped out from behind the door. He and Parker pounced on Edberg like a pair of panthers.

The three of them went to the floor in a struggling mass. For a moment it seemed that Ned and Parker would overpower Edberg, but the professor managed to throw them both off.

He lurched to his feet, his eyes searching the floor for his gun, but it had skidded under the control console when Nancy kicked it out of his hand. Nancy grabbed his arm, trying to restrain him with a judo hold, but he flicked her away. Before any of the teens could react, Edberg reeled toward the door.

“Stop him! He's getting away!” Nancy cried.

Edberg burst out of the observation booth with Nancy, Ned, and Parker hot on his heels. He ran to the door of the lab, threw it open—and crashed into Marcus Backman.

Edberg threw a wild punch at Backman. Captain Backman caught Edberg's hand in midpunch. Spinning Edberg around, Backman wrapped his muscular arms around the professor.
A moment later he was snapping handcuffs around Edberg's wrists.