Chapter 16 The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene
Sold!
“Oh, Nancy, I hope we meet a police officer!” said Helen Corning. “If Gomber is a kidnaper, he may try to harm us if we do catch up to him!”
“We’ll have to be cautious,” Nancy admitted. “But I’m afraid we’re not going to meet any policeman. I haven’t seen one on these roads in all the time I’ve been here.”
Both girls watched the car ahead of them intently. It was near enough for Nancy to be able to read the license number. She wondered if the car was registered under Gomber’s name or someone else’s. If it belonged to a friend of his, this fact might lead the police to another suspect.
“Where do you think Gomber’s going?” Helen asked presently. “To meet somebody?”
“Perhaps. And he may be on his way back to River Heights.”
“Not yet,” Helen said, for at that moment Gomber had reached a crossroads and turned sharp right. “That road leads away from River Heights.”
“But it does lead past Riverview Manor,” Nancy replied tensely as she neared the crossroads.
Turning right, the girls saw Gomber ahead, tearing along at a terrific speed. He passed the vacant mansion. A short distance beyond it he began to turn his car lights off and on.
“What’s he doing that for?” Helen queried. “Is he just testing his lights?”
Nancy was not inclined to think so. “I believe he’s signaling to someone. Look all around, Helen, and see if you can spot anybody.” She herself was driving so fast that she did not dare take her eyes from the road.
Helen gazed right and left, and then turned to gaze through the back window. “I don’t see a soul,” she reported.
Nancy began to feel uneasy. It was possible that Gomber might have been signaling to someone to follow the girls. “Helen, keep looking out the rear window and see if a car appears and starts to follow us.”
“Maybe we ought to give up the chase and just tell the police about Gomber,” Helen said a bit fearfully.
But Nancy did not want to do this. “I think it will help us a lot to know where he’s heading.”
She continued the pursuit and several miles farther on came to the town of Hancock.
“Isn’t this where that crinkly-eared fellow lives?” Helen inquired.
“Yes.”
“Then it’s my guess Gomber is going to see him.”
Nancy reminded her friend that the man was reported to be out of town, presumably because he was wanted by the police on a couple of robbery charges.
Though Hancock was small, there was a great deal of traffic on the main street. In the center of town at an intersection, there was a signal light. Gomber shot through the green, but by the time Nancy reached the spot, the light had turned red.
“Oh dear!” she fumed. “Now I’ll probably lose him!”
In a few seconds the light changed to green and Nancy again took up her pursuit. But she felt that at this point it was futile. Gomber could have turned down any of a number of side streets, or if he had gone straight through the town he would now be so far ahead of her that it was doubtful she could catch him. Nancy went on, nevertheless, for another three miles. Then, catching no sight of her quarry, she decided to give up the chase.
“I guess it’s hopeless, Helen,” she said. “I’m going back to Hancock and report everything to the police there. I’ll ask them to get in touch with Captain Rossland and Captain McGinnis.”
“Oh, I hope they capture Gomber!” Helen said. “He’s such a horrible man! He ought to be put in jail just for his bad manners!”
Smiling, Nancy turned the car and headed back for Hancock. A woman passer-by gave her directions to police headquarters and a few moments later Nancy parked in front of it. The girls went inside the building. Nancy told the officer in charge who they were, then gave him full details of the recent chase.
The officer listened attentively, then said, “I’ll telephone your River Heights captain first.”
“And please alert your own men and the State Police,” Nancy requested.
He nodded. “Don’t worry, Miss Drew, I’ll follow through from here.” He picked up his phone.
Helen urged Nancy to leave immediately. “While you were talking, I kept thinking about Gomber’s visit to Twin Elms. I have a feeling something may have happened there. You remember what a self-satisfied look Gomber had on his face when we saw him come out of the driveway.”
“You’re right,” Nancy agreed. “We’d better hurry back there.”
It was a long drive back to Twin Elms and the closer the girls got to it, the more worried they became. “Miss Flora was already ill,” Helen said tensely, “and Gomber’s visit may have made her worse.”
On reaching the house, the front door was opened by Aunt Rosemary, who looked pale.
“I’m so glad you’ve returned,” she said. “My mother is much worse. She has had a bad shock. I’m waiting for Dr. Morrison.”
Mrs. Hayes’ voice was trembling and she found it hard to go on. Nancy said sympathetically, “We know Nathan Gomber was here. We’ve been chasing his car, but lost it. Did he upset Miss Flora?”
“Yes. I was out of the house about twenty minutes talking with the gardener and didn’t happen to see Gomber drive up. The cleaning woman, Lillie, let him in. Of course she didn’t know who he was and thought he was all right. When she finally came outside to tell me, I had walked way over to the wisteria arbor at the far end of the grounds.
“In the meantime, Gomber went upstairs. He began talking to Mother about selling the mansion. When she refused, he threatened her, saying that if she did not sign, all kinds of dreadful things would happen to me and to both you girls.
“Poor Mother couldn’t hold out any longer. At this moment Lillie, who couldn’t find me, returned and went upstairs. She actually witnessed Mother’s signature on the contract of sale and signed her own name to it. So Gomber has won!”
Aunt Rosemary sank into the chair by the telephone and began to cry. Nancy and Helen put their arms around her, but before either could say a word of comfort, they heard a car drive up in front of the mansion. At once Mrs. Hayes dried her eyes and said, “It must be Dr. Morrison.”
Nancy opened the door and admitted the physician. The whole group went upstairs where Miss Flora lay staring at the ceiling like someone in a trance. She was murmuring:
“I shouldn’t have signed! I shouldn’t have sold Twin Elms!”
Dr. Morrison took the patient’s pulse and listened to her heartbeat with a stethoscope. A few moments later he said, “Mrs. Turnbull, won’t you please let me take you to the hospital?”
“Not yet,” said Miss Flora stubbornly. She smiled wanly. “I know I’m ill. But I’m not going to get better any quicker in the hospital than I am right here. I’ll be moving out of Twin Elms soon enough and I want to stay here as long as I can. Oh, why did I ever sign my name to that paper?”
As an expression of defeat came over the physician’s face, Nancy moved to the bedside. “Miss Flora,” she said gently, “maybe the deal will never go through. In the first place, perhaps we can prove that you signed under coercion. If that doesn’t work, you know it takes a long time to have a title search made on property. By then, maybe Gomber will change his mind.”
“Oh, I hope you’re right,” the elderly woman replied, squeezing Nancy’s hand affectionately.
The girls left the room, so that Dr. Morrison could examine the patient further and prescribe for her. They decided to say nothing of their morning’s adventure to Miss Flora, but at luncheon they gave Aunt Rosemary a full account.
“I’m almost glad you didn’t catch Gomber,” Mrs. Hayes exclaimed. “He might have harmed you both.” Nancy said she felt sure that the police of one town or the other would soon capture him, and then perhaps many things could be explained. “For one, we can find out why he was turning his lights off and on. I have a hunch he was signaling to someone and that the person was hidden in Riverview Manor!”
“You may be right,” Aunt Rosemary replied.
Helen suddenly leaned across the table. “Do you suppose our ghost thief hides out there?”
“I think it’s very probable,” Nancy answered. “I’d like to do some sleuthing in that old mansion.”
“You’re not going to break in?” Helen asked, horrified.
Her friend smiled. “No, Helen, I’m not going to evade the law. I’ll go to the realtor who is handling the property and ask him to show me the place. Want to come along?”
Helen shivered a little but said she was game. “Let’s do it this afternoon.”
“Oh dear.” Aunt Rosemary gave an anxious sigh. “I don’t know whether or not I should let you. It sounds very dangerous to me.”
“If the realtor is with us, we should be safe,” Helen spoke up. Her aunt then gave her consent, and added that the realtor, Mr. Dodd, had an office on Main Street.
Conversation ceased for a few moments as the threesome finished luncheon. They had just left the table when they heard a loud thump upstairs.
“Oh, goodness!” Aunt Rosemary cried out. “I hope Mother hasn’t fallen!”
She and the girls dashed up the stairs. Miss Flora was in bed, but she was trembling like a leaf in the wind. She pointed a thin, white hand toward the ceiling.
“It was up in the attic! Somebody’s there!”