Authors: Carolyn Keene

Tags: #Art Thieves, #Yacht Clubs, #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Adventures and Adventures, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Juvenile Fiction, #Mothers and Sons, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Art Objects - Reproduction, #Fraud, #Mystery Fiction, #Adventure Stories, #Art Objects, #Swindlers and Swindling, #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Statues, #Mystery and Detective Stories

The Whispering Statue (2 page)

BOOK: The Whispering Statue

7.46Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Read Book Download Book

ads

Mrs. Merriam, seeing Nancy, exclaimed, “What will we do?”

“Run upstairs and call the police!” Nancy directed.

Her father’s attacker, apparently having heard Nancy’s request, suddenly whirled and made a dash to the front steps.

Mr. Drew was breathing heavily. Nevertheless he started out the door after the intruder.

Nancy grabbed his arm. “Please don’t!” she begged. “He may be armed. Let the police handle this!”

She closed the door and picked up the mask which had fallen to the floor. “This may be a clue to yours and Hannah’s attackers, Dad,” she said, and told of the man in the kitchen.

They hurried there. “He escaped!” Bess cried out.

“I don’t understand,” the lawyer said, “what those men hoped to accomplish.”

“My guess is,” Nancy replied, “that they wanted to hurt us so we’d be unable to work on Mrs. Merriam’s case.”

“What makes you think that?” he asked.

Nancy told her father about the warning she had received over the telephone.

“On the other hand,” the lawyer said, “there may be a gang that has a grudge against Willis Basswood.”

Although Mr. Drew was upset by what had occurred, he smiled when he heard how George had used her knowledge of judo on Hannah’s attacker.

“Good for you,” he said. “Can you give a good description of him?”

“Indeed I can,” Hannah spoke up indignantly. “I pulled off his mask. He looked like a gorilla!”

Mrs. Merriam had joined the group and said the police were on their way. “I wish someone would explain what the ruckus was all about.”

Nancy gave her the phone message and Mr. Drew said, “I think, Mrs. Merriam, you may be right in mistrusting Mr. Basswood. Apparently there’s a connection between him and those thugs. You must be very careful from now on.”

Police sirens wailed and within seconds two cars raced up the driveway. Four officers jumped out. Three started to search the grounds while one remained at the front door.

By this time the Drews and their friends had gathered in the living room. The lawyer opened the door and invited the officer inside.

“Which way did your intruder go?” the policeman asked.

“There were two men—one at the front door and one at the back,” Mr. Drew replied.

“Who saw which direction the one at the back took?”

Bess and George said that he had gone to the rear of the garden and jumped the hedge. They described him as a strong, heavy-set man with a long scar on his right wrist.

The officer said, “I think we know who he is. It won’t be too hard to pick him up. He earns a living as a strong-arm man for underworld characters.”

“Oh, how dreadful!” Mrs. Merriam exclaimed.

Nancy described the man who had come in by the front door. The two masks were examined. They were identical.

“Those thugs were working together all right,” the officer declared. Then he hurried outside to report to the other men, taking the two masks with him.

“It’s all my fault!” Mrs. Merriam berated herself.

She was pale and looked as if she were going to faint. As the woman slumped into a chair, Hannah Gruen hurried off to bring her a cup of tea.

The hot beverage revived Mrs. Merriam. Looking intently at Nancy and her father, she said, “I think you should give up the case.”

Nancy was stunned. She was already intrigued by the suspicions against Mr. Basswood. “Besides,” she thought, “I haven’t heard the story of the whispering statue.”

CHAPTER II

Name, Please

MRS. Merriam’s announcement was followed by a long, embarrassing pause. Mr. Drew did not feel that he should urge a new client to go on with the case if she did not wish to. Nancy, Bess, and George looked down at the floor, not knowing what to say.

Their caller must have realized that her remark had stunned the others. She said quickly, “Please don’t think I believe you’re incapable of handling this matter. I just don’t want anybody to get hurt.”

Everyone looked at her and smiled. Mr. Drew said, “We’re used to this sort of thing, Mrs. Merriam. Don’t worry about us. However, I don’t want anything to happen to you. You said your husband is away a great deal. I’d advise you not to stay in your house alone.”

Nancy added, “And please spend tonight with us, Mrs. Merriam.”

The woman smiled gratefully. “You are very kind people. I admit I am a little afraid to go back to Waterford this late. It’s a fairly long trip by plane and then I have to drive to my house.”

Mr. Drew said, “Indeed you must stay.”

The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the phone. Mr. Drew answered and was told that the police were calling. Chief McGinnis, a long-time friend of the Drews, came on the line. He said, “That man who escaped from your home by the front door has not been apprehended.

“However, we caught that burly fellow who barged in your back door. He refuses to give his name and claims he is innocent.” The chief chuckled. “He had the nerve to say that Mrs. Gruen had attacked him!”

“How did he explain the mask?” the lawyer asked.

“He didn’t. We’re checking the fingerprints on both masks.”

Mr. Drew reported the conversation to the others. “I imagine the police will keep the fellow in jail until he’s willing to cooperate. And now I have a surprise to tell all of you. I know Mrs. Merriam is in a hurry to have this mystery solved. Unfortunately I am busy on another case which will take me out of town for a while.

“If you’re willing, Mrs. Merriam, I should like Nancy, Bess, and George to go to Waterford without me and stay at your yacht club. I can highly recommend my daughter as an amateur sleuth.”

Hannah Gruen spoke up. “Nancy has a long list of accomplishments and Bess and George have been a wonderful help to her. She discovered
The Secret of the Old Clock
and recently
solved The Mystery of the Ivory Charm.”

Mrs. Merriam’s face broke into a wide smile. “I shall be delighted to work with them. But as I said before, I don’t want anyone getting hurt. If you girls promise not to take any chances, I’ll say yes.”

At once Bess said, “I promise!”

George added that she would see to it Nancy took no unnecessary chances.

Mr. Drew said he had a request of his own. “Nancy, I want you to use a disguise and an assumed name while you’re working on this case.”

Again Mrs. Merriam looked alarmed. “Is that necessary? Won’t it bring more trouble to Nancy?”

The lawyer shook his head. “It should be good protection.”

Bess asked, “How did the person on the phone and the two attackers know Mrs. Merriam is here?”

Suddenly the woman put a hand over her mouth and fear came into her eyes. “I’m afraid,” she said slowly, “that a friend of mine might have given the whole thing away. I thought she could be trusted to keep a secret. She told me she had been down to Mr. Basswood’s art store. She is a great talker and I’m afraid may have mentioned my plans.”

Mr. Drew frowned. “That is unfortunate,” he said. “I shall not be working on the case, however, so if they follow me they will learn nothing. But if they think Nancy is coming to Waterford, that’s a very good reason why she should assume a disguise.”

Bess remarked that it was lucky the man who had seen her in the kitchen was in jail. The one in the front hall had not had a glimpse of any of the girls.

There was a slight lull in the conversation as each one in the group thought about the case. The silence was broken by George.

With a broad grin she asked, “Let’s work on a new name for Nancy. Since it’s a mystery about books, how about Libby, for library—Booker?”

The others laughed.

Bess’s eyes began to twinkle. “Mr. Basswood’s name is partly fish. How about Nancy calling herself Carrie Fisher?”

Again there was laughter and many suggestions followed. In the end it was Hannah Gruen who proposed a name which appealed to Nancy.

Smiling, Nancy said, “From now on will everyone please address me as Miss Debbie Lynbrook.”

“Okay, Debbie,” said Bess and George together. Bess added, “I just hope we don’t make any mistakes and call you by your own name.”

Nancy chuckled. “If you do, I won’t pay any attention to you.”

Mr. Drew said that he would get in touch with Mr. Ayer, the manager of the yacht club, and tell him what the plan was. He would request that all messages for Nancy Drew be rerouted to Mr. Ayer. The only ones Nancy was to take were those under the name Debbie Lynbrook.

The light turn in the conversation had revived Mrs. Merriam’s spirits. Hannah suggested that they now eat her raspberry shortcake. Everyone returned to the table and sat down.

Bess said, “Mrs. Merriam, Nancy hinted that you know something about a whispering statue. Will you tell us the story?”

“I’ll be glad to,” she replied. With a smile she added, “It concerns the yacht club. Maybe you three girls would like to solve that mystery too.”

Mrs. Merriam said that the statue was life-size and of fine Italian marble. It had been imported from Italy many years before by a man who was of Italian descent.

“He lived in the mansion, which is now the Waterford Yacht Club. The statue stood on the front lawn.”

Suddenly Mrs. Merriam stared at Nancy. “You know, as I recall the face of the sculpture, the young woman looked very much like you. Actually, she was supposed to resemble the wife of its owner. The couple had come from Italy, but she never got over a feeling of homesickness. She passed away while still in her twenties.”

“How sad!” Bess murmured softly.

Mrs. Merriam said she had never known the woman but had met the husband a few times. “He was a very nice man. He died suddenly and it took a long time to settle the estate. In the meantime the yacht club decided to purchase the place.”

Nancy asked, “Was the statue there at that time?”

“Oh yes. It was stolen between the time the contract was signed and the day the yacht club took title to the property. The theft was reported to the police. Though they made a careful investigation, no clues were ever found.”

“I should think,” said George, “that if the statue whispered, tracing it would be easy.”

Hannah Gruen suggested that perhaps the marble figure had been taken away by boat and shipped out of the country.

“That’s possible,” said Mr. Drew. “Well, you girls are going to have a busy time at Waterford.” He asked Mrs. Merriam if she had ever heard the statue whisper.

“Indeed I did. It was kind of weird. Sometimes you could almost distinguish words. There were warnings and then affectionate little murmurings.”

By the time the raspberry shortcake had been eaten, Bess and George said they really should return home. Mr. Drew offered to drive them there. After they had gone, Nancy and Hannah took Mrs. Merriam to the second floor. As they led her into the guest room, she again remarked how kind they all were.

“I can never thank you enough,” she said as Hannah pulled out a bureau drawer and showed her where there was a nightgown, robe, and slippers.

Nancy said good night and left the room. Instead of going to her own bedroom, she went back downstairs. She called her little terrier Togo from his special place in the basement. He was an affectionate animal and the Drews had made it a rule that whenever they had guests, he would have to stay downstairs. Nancy sat down in a comfortable upholstered chair in the living room and he jumped into her lap.

As Nancy fondled her pet, and waited for her father’s return, she thought about the two mysteries at Waterford.

“It’s going to be a real challenge,” she decided. “I’ll wear a full wig which will cover part of my face. And I’ll use some quick tanning lotion to darken my skin.”

Mrs. Gruen came downstairs and said she wondered why Mr. Drew had not come back. “It doesn’t take this long to get to Bess’s and George’s homes.”

Nancy glanced at her watch and was alarmed to see that it was nearly midnight. Had something happened to her father?

CHAPTER III

The Ambush

HALF an hour later Nancy decided to call the Faynes to see if George was home.

“Good idea,” Hannah replied. “If she and Bess aren’t home get in touch with the police.”

Nancy dialed the Fayne number but could not hear a ring. She put the phone down, then picked it up. There was no dial tone.

“I’m afraid our line is out of order,” she told Hannah.

Nancy began to pace the floor while the housekeeper sat in a living-room chair staring straight ahead. Finally she said, “Maybe your father tried to phone here and couldn’t reach us.”

Nancy nodded. She was alarmed for the safety of her father and the girls because of what had occurred earlier at the house.

Suddenly she stopped pacing. A car was coming up the driveway. Nancy ran to the kitchen and turned on the light.

Her father was home!

She greeted him at the back door. “We were so worried about you, Dad,” she said. “Did something happen?”

He smiled. “I’ve had an interesting adventure,” he replied. “Come into the living room and I’ll tell you about it.”

Nancy and Hannah were not too surprised to learn that the lawyer had been followed when he left the house with Bess and George. “I decided it might be a good idea if the men trailing me didn’t know where the girls live, so we all went to a soda shop.”

As he paused, Nancy asked, “And then?”

Her father said he was sure friends of Bess and George would be in the shop and glad to take the girls home separately. “If I were followed, I could play a game of hare and hounds and get away.”

“And you did?” Hannah Gruen asked.

“Finally,” he answered. “By the way, I tried to phone here, but the line was dead.”

“I found that out too,” Nancy told him. “Dad, were you followed after you left the soda shop?”

BOOK: The Whispering Statue

7.46Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Read Book Download Book

ads