Chapter 10 The Whispering Statue by Carolyn Keene
A SIGNIFICANT CLUE
“Perhaps you only misplaced the brief-case, Dad,” Nancy said hopefully. “It should be here somewhere.”
“It should be but it isn’t,” Carson Drew replied grimly. “No, I’m convinced the case has been stolen. I have an idea that the thief, whoever he is, came here knowing where I had the Owen-Wormrath papers. It will be a blow to have the documents lost or get into the hands of someone antagonistic to my client’s interests.”
Nancy searched the room carefully but the missing brief-case could not be found. Suddenly she stooped to pick up a brown button from the floor. A glance assured her that it did not belong to her father’s suit.
“Let me see that,” Mr. Drew said quickly. “I believe you’ve found a clue, Nancy.”
“This button must have come from the thief’s coat,” Nancy declared, proud that she had observed something which her keen-eyed father had overlooked. “It may help to identify him later.”
“Yes, if we are able to trail the man,” Carson Drew nodded. “I will question the maids.”
Inquiry revealed that neither the cleaning women who served the floor nor any of the bellboys had seen any suspicious looking person in the vicinity of Mr. Drew’s room. The hotel manager, although disturbed over the theft, was likewise unable to be of any help.
Nancy and the lawyer returned to their own floor, discouraged at their failure to find additional clues. Mr. Drew paused in the hall for a moment to get a cool drink of water from an ice tank. Walking slowly on alone, Nancy rounded a corner of the corridor where she paused abruptly.
The Drew girl had seen a shadowy form move hastily away from her father’s room. She could not be certain, but she believed the man had been listening at the door. He walked rapidly, and without glancing backward entered his own room at the end of the hall.
When Mr. Drew joined her Nancy told him what she had observed. The lawyer was inclined to believe that the man she had seen was merely curious, having no connection whatsoever with the theft of the brief-case.
“Don’t lose any sleep over the matter,” he said kindly. “Go to bed now and in the morning we can delve into the affair more thoroughly.”
Nancy retired but could not fall asleep. She knew that her father was deeply concerned over the loss of the papers and wished that she might aid him in recovering them.
“I believe that man who was skulking at the door did have something to do with the theft,” she thought. “I wish I could have caught a glimpse of his face.”
In the morning Nancy awoke with a firm determination to try out a little scheme of her own. Telling Bess and George she would not eat breakfast with them, she waited in her room until they had gone downstairs. Then she raced to a nearby shop she had noticed previously and purchased a chambermaid’s uniform. Hurriedly she returned and changed her clothes.
“I look the part, I’m sure,” she said, glancing at herself in the mirror.
Gathering up several clean towels, she opened the door of her room. No one was in the hall, so she hastened along the corridor until she reached the spot where she had seen the suspicious stranger go the night before. Rapping on number 359, she waited.
“Who’s there?” a gruff voice demanded.
Nancy did not dare reply, as she had no master key with which to open the door. Finally the occupant of the room strode across the carpet and in a moment was facing the maid.
“May I make the bed now?” Nancy asked sweetly.
“Oh, I suppose so,” the man growled. “Come on in.”
The girl’s heart began to beat a little faster as she directed a swift, searching glance at the man. He was an unpleasant looking individual with a sharp, evil face. She had never seen him before. He sat down at once at a desk to continue writing a letter.
“Try not to make a lot of clatter,” he said irritably. “I hate noise.”
“Yes, sir, I’ll work very quietly,” Nancy murmured meekly, beginning to dust the place, which was a sitting room. All the while her eyes were roving swiftly about in search of her father’s brief-case.
“Can’t you let that go?” the man demanded with a scowl after a few moments.
“I’ll do the other room first, sir,” Nancy offered.
“All right, I wish you would. Clear out of here. But mind you don’t bother any of my private papers.”
“Oh, no,” Nancy murmured again.
She slipped quietly into the next room and shook the bed several times, causing the springs to rattle so that the man would assume that she was busy with sheets and blankets. Then she moved stealthily to the bureau and softly opened each drawer.
“Empty,” she observed in disappointment.
Next the clothes closet drew her attention. She saw a suitcase packed with wearing apparel, and beside it stood her father’s brief-case!
Fearing that she might not be able to take it from the suite without discovery, Nancy quickly divested it of some papers which she stuffed into the front of her uniform.
Scarcely had she done this, when she heard the man in the next room push back his chair and come toward the bed chamber. Swiftly Nancy darted away from the closet. She was deeply engrossed in her bedmaking when he entered.
Ignoring her, he moved to the telephone and called the office. He informed the clerk that he was checking out in ten minutes. Nancy went on calmly smoothing the bed covers, but her mind worked with lightning rapidity. Unless she should act quickly, the fellow would escape from the hotel. He must be detained at all costs.
Nancy knew that she had located the thief, for in addition to the incriminating brief-case she noticed that the top button of the man’s coat was missing.
She held her breath when he went to the closet for his luggage. However, he picked up the bag and the brief-case without opening the latter. When a bellboy came to the door a few minutes later he gave up the suitcase but insisted upon carrying the brief-case himself. The instant the door closed, Nancy darted to the telephone.
“Detain the man from Room 359 who is just coming down to pay his bill,” she said crisply to the clerk. “He is carrying away stolen property.”
Then hastening back to her room, Nancy quickly changed into her regular clothing. She called her father from the adjoining suite and told him of her discovery. He identified readily the papers as those which had been stolen.
“Clever work, Nancy,” he praised. “We’ll go downstairs and take a look at the thief.”
The detained man blustered and fumed.
“It is an outrage to accuse me of stealing it,” he retorted angrily. “I found it in my room when I came in late last night. How it got there I don’t know, but I assumed it had been left by the former room occupant. At any rate, I was just turning it in here at the desk.”
“And can you explain away this button just as readily?” Nancy asked sarcastically.
She held up the brown object so that all might see that it was identical with the others on the man’s suit. For an instant the wily individual looked stunned.
“My daughter picked up this button in my room last night,” Carson Drew said coldly.
“I don’t know anything about it,” the accused person muttered, avoiding the lawyer’s eyes. He appealed to the hotel clerk. “This man—whoever he is—hasn’t a scrap of proof. Are you going to believe his story or mine?”
“Well,” the clerk stammered uncomfortably, “the brief-case was found in your room, Mr. Dencer——”
“Left there by someone else, I told you. Probably this girl planted it herself just to make trouble for me.”
“How ridiculous!” Nancy said. “I suppose you claim I pulled the button off your suit, too!”
“As to the button, it has no significance. The one I lost from my coat has been missing a month.”
The man tossed the leather brief-case down on the desk. Then, picking up his suitcase, he stalked angrily from the lobby.
“Aren’t you going to stop him?” Nancy cried, gazing accusingly at the baffled clerk. “He ought to be arrested.”
“There really isn’t any proof—” the man began apologetically.
“You’re afraid to do anything,” Carson Drew said sharply. “Why not admit the truth?” Turning to his daughter he said, “Come along, Nancy.”
“Oh, Dad,” she murmured in distress. “To let that thief get away——”
“I know, Nancy, but if the hotel folks won’t support us we’d only cause a scene if we tried to detain him. Anyway, thanks to your quick thinking I’ve recovered the missing papers.”
“I hope they’re all intact.”
“I’ll check over everything just as soon as I get to my room,” Mr. Drew declared. “Let’s go there now.”
A hasty inspection of the documents taken from the brief-case revealed that nothing had been kept by the thief.
“This affair should serve as a warning to me,” Nancy’s father remarked thoughtfully, his brows knitting in a frown. “I figure that Wormrath sent that man Dencer here to steal the Owen documents. I fear it’s only the beginning of trouble.”
“But you’ll be on your guard after this, Dad.”
“I wasn’t thinking of myself, Nancy,” Mr. Drew replied soberly. “I’m worried about Mr. Owen. I am afraid that one of these days he may be missing.”