The Secret in the Old Lace (4 page)

After hanging up, Nancy related the conversation to Hannah Gruen, then called her father at his office. He was as puzzled as Nancy. “I can’t imagine why there is so much interest in your manuscript,” Mr. Drew commented. “It’s only a magazine contest.”

“That’s what I thought, Dad,” Nancy said.

Deciding to put her aunt’s strange encounter out of her mind, Nancy headed downtown to do some shopping for her trip. On the way, though, she suddenly remembered that she had not heard from Chief McGinnis and stopped at police headquarters.

“I should’ve called you yesterday,” the chief apologized, “but I got bogged down on a couple of things. Those prints do belong to Matey Johnson, so it looks as if he stole that letter from you. Even so, you might have a hard time proving it. I’m waiting for him to report to his parole officer. ”

“He probably won’t,” Nancy said and told about her trip to the apartment house where he no longer lived. “I should’ve mentioned this as soon as I found out. But I’ve been worried about sending my manuscript to the magazine and now I’m leaving for Europe.”

“Well, have a wonderful trip—”

“It should be a mysterious one,” Nancy interrupted, reminding Chief McGinnis about Madame Chambray’s story of the antique cross and its missing owner.

After leaving police headquarters, she made a few purchases, including a pretty blue sweater-coat that matched the color of her eyes, then returned home. To her delight, Hannah said Ned Nickerson had called. He and Nancy were special friends; neither of them ever dated anyone else. For a moment a picture of the tall, good-looking athlete from Emerson College swept pleasantly across her mind.

“Nancy,” Mrs. Gruen said, interrupting the girl’s daydream, “poor Ned has laryngitis. He could hardly talk but he wanted to know how you were and what you were doing. When I told him you were flying to Belgium with Bess and George to solve a mystery, he sounded very downhearted and said he wished he could go along.”

“I wish he could too,” said Nancy, “but he has a summer job I know he can’t leave.”

Eager to speak to him herself, Nancy dialed his number. To her amazement Ned’s voice was clear as a bell. He said he certainly had not phoned her!

Fear suddenly rippled through her as she revealed her travel plans. “Then Hannah told a stranger about Bess, George, and me definitely going to Belgium in connection with a mystery.”

“That’s bad,” Ned remarked. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to come along to protect you, but I just can’t get away right now. I’ll see you before you go, won’t I?
^»

“I don’t know,” Nancy said. “We’re leaving as soon as we get our reservations.” She admitted she was glad Hannah had not been aware of the details of her flight. “So your impersonator didn’t find out anything definite about our departure.”

Ned agreed. “But when you find out what flight you’re taking, please tell me. Promise?”

“Promise.” Nancy blushed.

With so many chores to finish before leaving, the rest of the day flew by. At bedtime she crawled between the covers, checking off in her mind all that was left to do. Then, yawning deeply, she fell asleep.

A strange clipping sound awakened her a few hours later. She listened intently. The noise stopped. Was she dreaming? Nancy closed her eyes again, telling herself to ignore the interruption. Then
clip, clip, clip.

What is that sound? she wondered, lifting her head off the pillow. She squinted at the open window across the room where a shadowy face was outlined in the moonlight.

A man was cutting the screen with a large pair of shears!

 

 

 

Nancy’s heart pounded as she watched the blades sink through the screen wire. Desperately she wondered what to do. If she slammed the window down and locked it, the intruder could not enter her room.

But then he’d escape for sure, Nancy decided, and come back another time when I wasn’t here to catch him!

Quietly she got out of bed and tiptoed to her father’s room.

“Dad!” she whispered hoarsely. “Dad! Wake up! Someone’s trying to break into my room!”

Mr. Drew stirred uneasily, mumbling in reply.

“Dad!” Nancy repeated nervously as he blinked his eyes open. “A burglar is breaking into the house!”

“Where is he?” her father asked. Now fully awake, he followed Nancy back to her room.

There, staring at the girl’s empty bed, stood the intruder! Instantly, Mr. Drew pounced on the man, throwing him to the floor. He pinned his arms back to prevent him from pulling out a weapon.

“Let me go!” the stranger bellowed. He tried to wriggle out from under his captor. But Mr. Drew sat squarely on his chest!

“Call the police, Nancy!” her father said, glaring at his prisoner.

The girl detective was already dialing headquarters. She told the sergeant on duty what had happened. “Please hurry over here,” she said, ending the conversation. Then she turned to her father. “They’re sending two policemen right away.”

Once more the captive struggled for release. He pushed his knees up and dug his feet into the plush carpet, trying to get a strong foothold.

“No, you don’t,” Nancy informed him, forcing his knees down and sitting on them.

“Ou-ouch!” he cried out furiously. “Get off me. You’re breaking my bones!”

The rumpus in the room carried into the adjacent one where Hannah Gruen slept. She awoke and rushed to the scene. Flipping on the overhead light, she gasped. “Oh, my goodness! Who is he?”

“You’re Matey Johnson, aren’t you?” Nancy responded as she leaned back and noticed the man’s reddish-blond hair.

All color drained from his face. His mouth quivered open but shut quickly.

“Well, when the police get here—” Nancy began as the front doorbell rang.

Hannah hurried downstairs. Shortly two officers appeared in the girl’s room and immediately handcuffed the prisoner. After advising him of his legal rights, one of the policemen said, “Haven’t I seen you around the station?”

The captive tightened his lips angrily.

“This is Matey Johnson.” Nancy identified him. “He’s been out on parole.”

“How do you know th—” the intruder began, then caught himself.

“Why were you trying to break into our house?” Nancy questioned. “You already stole Mrs. Marvin’s letter. Were you coming back for my manuscript?”

Matey refused to answer.

“And I suppose,” the girl detective went on, “that paint ladder came in handy again, didn’t it?”

She pulled a flashlight from her desk drawer and shone it out the damaged window. Sure enough, the ladder was leaning against the house!

“Too bad we didn’t think of putting it in the garage,” the girl said to her father.

“You’re right,” Mr. Drew admitted. “We made it easy for Johnson to break in a second time. Only this time he didn’t get away with it!”

Johnson glowered as the officers led him out of the house. Hannah Gruen locked the door behind them and yawned. “What a night!” she said.

Nancy nodded. “You know, I’m hungry all of a sudden. Would anyone else like a snack?”

Mr. Drew laughed, following Hannah and his daughter into the kitchen. “I guess I lost a few calories sitting on that character! How about another dish of your rice pudding, Hannah?”

“Coming right up,” she said. “I think we all need to eat a little something to settle our nerves.” She dished out the rice pudding while Nancy made cups of steaming hot chocolate topped with whipped cream.

“It’s too bad you didn’t get your letter back from Mr. Johnson,” the attorney said to his daughter.

She shrugged, spooning a bit of the cream into her mouth. “I’m just glad we caught him,” she said. “The only thing that bothers me is he may have shown the letter to someone else—like André Bergère. ”

The next morning Nancy told Bess and George all about the midnight intruder and her father’s bravery.

“It sounds to me you were pretty courageous yourself,” Bess complimented her friend. “I would have been totally paralyzed!”

“Oh, that isn’t true,” Nancy remarked. “You’ve been in lots of scary situations with me and done okay. ”

Bess giggled in embarrassment. “I’m hoping, though, there won’t be any in Belgium,” she said, leading Nancy to reveal Hannah Gruen’s phone conversation with Ned’s impersonator. “Oh, no!” Bess panicked. “Maybe we ought to give up the trip!”

“No, indeed,” the girl detective replied, “but if
you
want to back out—”

“Oh, I’ll go along,” Bess agreed reluctantly, “but I know I’ll be a wreck the whole time.”

George’s reaction was quite different. The minute she heard Nancy’s story she said, “The sooner we leave the U.S.A. the better off we’ll all be!”

“I hope you’re right,” Nancy commented, “but we might just run into trouble in Belgium.”

“You mean we might run into Bergère,” George said, adding crisply, “Well, let’s talk about something more pleasant. Burt says he, Dave, and Ned want to come here tomorrow to say good-bye. Since we only have a short time left before our trip—”

“Listen,” Nancy interrupted, “I want everybody to have dinner here, all right?”

“Fabulous,” George replied.

The girls contacted their Emerson friends at once. When the boys arrived the next evening, Dave suggested going to a local show followed by a dance to benefit a home for handicapped children.

Dave, who had driven Burt and Ned to the Drew house, chided himself for not thinking ahead. “I am really stupid,” he said. “There are six of us, but my car can only take four.”

“That’s okay,” Nancy said. “Ned and I can use my car. ”

The three couples drove off in two cars, but Dave and Ned did not follow the same route. Bess, George, and their escorts arrived first. They waited in the lobby for Nancy and Ned.

“I wonder where they are,” Burt remarked after a while, glancing impatiently at his watch. “We’ve been here almost fifteen minutes. Did Nancy say anything about stopping on the way?”

“No,” George answered.

She and the others watched the last trickle of audience take their seats. “It’s curtain time,” Dave commented. “Maybe we should go inside.”

“What do you think, George?” Bess asked. “You know it’s not like Nancy to be late. I hope nothing has happened to them.”

The sound of applause now drifted through the doors into the lobby which, except for the foursome, was empty. “Oh, I’m sure they’ll be here soon,” George said, leading the way into the darkened auditorium.

On stage was a beautiful woman with long silky hair that hung over the shoulders of her white sequined gown. She began to sing softly, bringing a hush over the auditorium. Bess, however, could not concentrate on the performance, that featured several popular songs including a romantic ballad she loved. Bess bit her lips anxiously and turned her head now and then to look at the closed doors.

“What’s the matter?” Dave whispered to his date, putting his hand comfortingly on hers.

“I have a feeling something dreadful has happened to Nancy and Ned!” Bess answered in alarm.

 

 

 

Nancy and Ned had started to follow Dave’s car but soon realized another one was tailing theirs. Its headlights created a glare in Nancy’s rearview mirror which caused Ned, who was driving, to push the mirror back.

“At the next side street,” Ned said, “I’ll turn right and switch off the headlights. If the car passes us, we can stop worrying.”

Nancy stared out the back window trying to see who was in the vehicle, but could not discern anyone’s face. Ned pressed down on the accelerator and screeched around the corner, switching off his lights as he swung past a truck and swerved over to the curb in front of a parked car.

“I think we lost them,” the young man said, pulling onto the road again.

“We can get back to the main street by turning at the end of this one,” Nancy observed. But suddenly a roadblock of wooden sawhorses came into view. A sign attached to them read:

“Sorry,” Nancy said to her friend. “I guess the old twenty-twenty vision is failing.”

Ned chuckled lightly as he put the transmission into reverse to turn around. Just then the car that had been tailing them pulled up directly behind the couple!

“Oh, no!” Nancy cried, as four teenage boys, all wearing jackets with sinister-looking spider patches on them, jumped out and swarmed around her car!

They grinned maliciously at the couple. Nancy and Ned hastily locked their doors and started to roll up their windows. One of the boys, however, was too quick for Nancy. He reached into the car before the pane was all the way up, shoved her hand aside, and pulled open the door, dragging Nancy out.