Chapter 11 The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene
A Torn Gown
Nancy’s nimble fingers stitched away, her mind actively planning some solution to the awkward situation in which she found herself and her chum.
“Quick, Bess!” She indicated the McNeery contract which they had brought to the nursery with them. It lay upon the table. “Take that envelope downstairs and waylay the Blairs! Keep them out of the nursery as long as you possibly can.”
Bess snatched up the document and darted from the room.
From below a door slammed. Mr. and Mrs. Blair had entered the house, and it was plain that they were quarreling.
“Such a day!” Mrs. Blair was heard to say. “Really, Johnny, if you can’t learn to play better golf you should stay at home. Imagine taking a twelve at the ninth hole! Outrageous!”
“I’d have done well enough if you hadn’t kept nagging at me every minute!” came the sharp retort. “Nothing I do pleases you.”
“That’s because you do everything so abominably!”
“Oh, cut the dramatics!” Johnny snapped. “You’re not on the stage now.”
“I wish I had never married you—a cheap actor!”
The voices suddenly died down. Nancy, listening from above, guessed that the Blairs had caught sight of Bess. A moment later she heard exclamations of pleasure and knew that the contract had been given them.
Desperately Nancy sewed away on the frock. At last it was repaired. Hurrying with the gown to Mrs. Blair’s bedroom, she quietly stole over to the closet and hung the dress on a vacant hook. Great as was the need for haste, she could not refrain from glancing about her.
It was such a bedroom as she had imagined the actress would have. The furniture was highly ornate and gaudy. A dressing table ladened with bottles of expensive perfumes stood near a window. Silk pillows and French dolls were everywhere. Movie magazines and cheap thrillers were strewn over the floor.
The closet was filled with elaborate gowns. Nancy had never before seen so many in the possession of one person. A special shelf had been built to accommodate the long row of shoes.
“She might be planning to open a secondhand clothing business!” Nancy chuckled, turning from the room. “No wonder the Blairs owe the butcher and baker.”
She stole into the nursery just in time to avoid questioning. Bess was coming up the stairs with the actor and his wife. They had not yet opened the sealed contract.
Evidently the sight of their adopted parents was not agreeable to the twins, for no sooner had Mr. and Mrs. Blair set foot in the nursery than Jay and Janet began to cry. Nancy rushed over to quiet them.
“Now, what’s the matter?” Kitty demanded irritably. “Every time we step into the nursery they start that bellowing!”
“They’ve been good babies all day.”
“Humph! It’s hard to believe. They’ll drive me crazy with their screaming.”
Mr. Blair stepped forward, and before Nancy could intervene, had snatched Janet from her crib.
“I know how to stop ’em. Here, kid, your daddy will teach you to step!”
As he roughly pulled the child about in the semblance of a dance, her screams grew more piercing. When he tried to make Janet turn a somersault, Nancy could endure the sight no longer.
“Let me have her,” she pleaded. “If you and Mrs. Blair will just leave me alone with the twins for a little while I’ll quiet them.”
“We wanted to hear what McNeery had to say about the contract,” Mrs. Blair protested.
“I’ll come downstairs and discuss it with you in just a minute.”
Almost without their realizing it, Nancy hustled the pair out of the room. With the cause of the disturbance removed, she soon had the youngsters quiet again.
Colleen, believing that she would not be found out, had returned to the nursery.
“Did Mrs. Blair see the dress?” she asked fearfully.
“I hardly think she’s gone to her room yet,” Nancy returned coldly. “It wasn’t very sporting of you to run away as you did, Colleen.”
The girl had the grace to look ashamed.
“I—I just thought of something I had to tell the cook.”
Nancy let the excuse pass. Telling the maid to remain with the children, she descended to the first floor where Bess and the Blairs were awaiting her in the den. They had opened the contract and were studying it eagerly.
They began to besiege Nancy with questions. Had McNeery dropped any hint as to how badly he was in need of their services? Did she think he would offer more money if they refused to sign?
“He did say one thing,” Nancy reported, watching their faces closely. “It was about the twins.”
“I knew he’d want them!” Kitty exclaimed. “We can make him pay plenty for their services.”
Nancy was forced to disillusion her.
“He doesn’t want the twins. In fact, he said that they must be sent back to the Home!”
Kitty looked surprised, but no other emotion was mirrored in her face.
“Why should I send the babies back just to please him?”
“That’s up to you, of course,” Nancy said smoothly. “He intimated, however, that unless you did so he would not use you or your husband in his new revue.”
“I like his nerve! Imagine telling us what to do!”
“Maybe we’d better follow his advice,” Johnny suggested nervously.
Kitty withered him with a glance.
“We’ll do nothing in haste, that’s certain. I must think this thing out.”
Kitty told nothing of what was passing through her mind. Presently she turned to her husband and smiled.
“We’ll not be in a hurry to sign this paper, Johnny. I know McNeery, and he’ll not be so high-handed if we keep him in suspense a while.”
Some plan was brewing in the actress’s mind, Nancy felt confident. Whether or not the woman meant to give up the twins she had no way of guessing. If Kitty should cling stubbornly to the babies, then Nancy would disclose a scheme of her own which had gradually been taking shape in her mind. If, she reasoned, she could locate the mysterious woman whom she believed to be the babies’ mother, it might be possible for her to induce the Blairs to engage the stranger as a nurse.
“It will be only a matter of time until Colleen will be discharged,” Nancy reflected. “She really isn’t capable of caring for the twins. Now, if I can locate their real mother they’ll receive the tender care they need.”
The tinkle of the telephone broke in upon her thoughts. Mrs. Blair arose to answer it. Her voice became smooth as velvet as she learned that it was the society editor of a daily paper who was calling.
“You wish a picture of me with the babies?” she purred into the transmitter. “How nice! Your staff photographer will call tomorrow? Yes, I’ll be here. I daren’t go far from the house, now that I have the darling babies to watch over, you know.”
When the conversation ended, Nancy and Bess announced that they must return home. They were thoroughly disgusted with Mrs. Blair and her hypocritical ways.
“We’ve had a busy day,” Bess remarked wearily as they drove away.
“Yes, but I’m disappointed because that stranger managed to slip away from me. Everything would work out splendidly if I could only get her installed as the children’s nurse.”
“So that’s your scheme? I knew you were mulling over something.”
“Executing the plan won’t be easy. I have no idea where to find that woman.”
“Too bad that Doctor Stafford had to get in your way today.”
“Yes, but I really was to blame partly.”
“You didn’t get the license number of the woman’s car, did you?”
“No, I couldn’t draw up close enough for that. I suppose now I’ve lost her for good.”
“If she actually is the mother, I’m sure she’ll come back,” Bess declared hopefully.
The girls discussed the case pro and con until they reached River Heights. There Nancy dropped Bess off at her home, promising to call the following afternoon.
She looked forward to having a long talk with her father at dinner. Greatly to her disappointment, however, she found a note stating that he had been called out of town on business and would not be home until late that night.
At breakfast the next morning there was no opportunity for Nancy to bring up the subject, for Mr. Drew was in a hurry to reach the Municipal Court.
When she tried to tell Hannah about the twins, the housekeeper assumed a disdainful attitude. She was still afraid that her young mistress might wish to bring the babies home with her.
“You take my advice, Nancy, and don’t be meddling in other folks’ affairs,” she warned. “Mysteries are all right—but children are a different matter.”
Nancy was glad when the time came for her to call upon Bess, for she knew her chum would enjoy discussing the case with her. A dilapidated car stood before the Marvin residence as Nancy pulled up to the curb. Before she could alight, a boyish voice greeted her from the porch.
“Hello, Nancy, don’t bump into my new runabout.”
“George Fayne! What are you doing here?”
Nancy rushed up the walk to greet the girl, a cousin of Bess, and a chum of long standing. She was as boyish as her name.
“Oh, just prowling around. Lucky I came, because Bess has been hinting that you’ve dug up another mystery.”
“We’re working on one,” Nancy laughed.
“Bess won’t tell me a thing. She says you’ll have to do all the explaining.”
“All right. Let’s go inside.”
While seated in the comfortable living room of the Marvin home, Bess and Nancy quickly told George all that had occurred at Jolly Folly.
“Holding out on me, weren’t you?” accused George.
“We didn’t mean to,” Nancy laughed. “We’ve simply been so busy we haven’t done anything except look after babies.”
“What about the mysterious telegrams, telephone calls, and adventurous chases over the country!” George enumerated. “I’m downright peeved that I wasn’t let in on the secret.”
“But you shall be from now on,” Bess declared.
“I’m glad of that. By the way, Nancy, what did that mysterious woman look like?”
“She wore a gray suit and a black felt hat with a red quill in it. She was of average height.”
“Gray, did you say?” George asked quickly.
“Yes. Doctor Stafford talked to her. He said she had a very musical voice.”
George looked up quickly.
“Then she’s the same one!” she cried.
“Who is?” Nancy demanded tensely. “Have you seen the woman?”
“I’m sure of it.”
“Where? Oh, hurry and tell us!” Bess urged.
“In the drug store this morning. I was having a chocolate soda.”
“What was the woman doing? How did she act?” Nancy cried impatiently.
“Like any other woman who was interested in baby food.”
“Baby food!” Nancy and Bess cried in one voice. “Did she buy it?”
“I think the druggist gave her several sample cans. I didn’t pay much attention to it, to tell you the truth. I just remember that they had a long discussion about the merits and demerits of each can.”
“What drug store was it?” Nancy demanded.
“Jackson’s.”
Nancy started for the door, Bess directly behind her. George caught up her béret and hurried after them.
“Say, have you girls lost your minds?”
“We’re going to the drug store to find out more about that woman!” Nancy called to her.
“I’ve told you all there is to tell.”
“The druggist may know who she is. We’ll question him, at an any rate.”
The girls piled into Nancy’s car and drove three blocks to Jackson’s Drug Store where they ordered ice cream. While they were eating, they sought to draw the druggist into conversation.
Adroitly Nancy questioned the man, but he knew very little about the strange woman. He admitted having given her several sample cans of baby food, but whether or not they were for her own children he could not say. Neither did he know her name.
Noting that the man was growing suspicious of so many questions, the girls gave up trying to learn anything further. Hurriedly they finished their ice cream. Nancy then gathered up the checks, and the girls arose to leave the table.
At that moment the outside door opened. Nancy glanced up casually to see who had entered. Quickly she pulled her chums back into the shelter of a large sign.
“It’s Rodney!” Bess murmured.
“Let’s wait and see what he wants,” Nancy whispered. “If we keep quiet he won’t look over this way.”
The chauffeur wore street clothes and a wide-brimmed hat which was pulled low over his eyes. He glanced carefully about the room as if to make certain that no customers were about. Then, gliding swiftly toward the counter where the pharmacist was standing, he bent over and whispered something.
The three girls were bewildered by the chauffeur’s secretive manner. They were even more stunned by what followed.
“Don’t give them that, man!” the druggist shouted, greatly excited. “You’ll kill the babies!”