Chapter 13 The Clue of the Velvet Mask by Carolyn Keene
A New Ruse
Linda poured out the story of why she had been discharged. Mr. Tombar, she told Nancy, had not given her any chance to explain.
“He made an inventory check late yesterday and discovered the ink missing,” the girl related. “Just a single little bottle that was opened without his permission! But did he ever make a fuss! He suspected me right away.”
“You didn’t tell him you lent me the ink?”
“No, but from the way he questioned me, I think he guessed it. Anyway, he made me admit that I had taken the bottle from the shelf. I offered to pay for a full one, but he wouldn’t even listen. He just told me I was through working there.”
“Now, Linda, don’t feel too bad,” Nancy comforted her. “I promised to help you, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but—”
“I will too,” Nancy announced confidently. “Take it easy for a few days and I’ll help you to get your job back or find another. A better one where there will be no Mr. Tombar.”
“Oh, Nancy,” Linda thanked her. “You’re so kind. I won’t forget how good you’ve been to me!”
Though Nancy sounded lighthearted, she was troubled. Now that Linda had been discharged she would have no listening post for information at the entertainment company. To make matters worse, Mr. Lightner himself called in a few minutes to say that affairs at the office were a bit confused at the moment and perhaps Nancy had better not return to work there since Linda was gone.
“I’m sorry,” Nancy said. “But it will be all right if I run in once in a while, won’t it? I’d like to talk to you about several things.”
“Come ahead.”
After she hung up, Nancy sat lost in thought. No mystery she had ever tried to solve had baffled her more than this one. In addition, George Fayne had not recovered from her frightening experience.
“I feel simply terrible about it,” Nancy told Hannah Gruen. “George is weak and has no appetite. But what’s even worse, she mopes around talking about the party thieves and begging me to give up the case every time I see her.”
“They’ve had a doctor for her?”
“Yes.”
“What does he say?”
“That George’s trouble is mostly mental.”
“For all we know those dreadful criminals may have threatened her in some way,” Hannah suggested.
“It would explain her pleas to me to drop the case,” Nancy conceded.
As she left the house, Nancy mulled over Hannah’s idea. She was on her way to see Mr. Lightner about Linda but decided to stop at George’s home first. There was the same old story again but with a new twist this time. George said that she had had a dream which she knew was a premonition and warning.
“Nancy, you were being dropped over a cliff by a man in a velvet mask,” the distraught girl said. “That’s something you can’t laugh off.”
“I’ll avoid all cliffs,” Nancy humored her.
Ordinarily George would have smiled, but now she remained serious and did not make her usual witty comeback. Nor could she be coaxed out of her low state of mind. Nancy’s parting “Cheer up, pal!” met with a blank response.
“Something must be done about George!” Nancy told herself as she hurried on to the Lightner office. “If I solve the mystery, that may do it.”
She went at once to Mr. Lightner’s office. He listened politely to her request that he take Linda back but shook his head.
“In the main I leave employment matters in that department entirely to Mr. Tombar,” he said. “If he discharged Linda, there must have been a good reason. Besides, the girl has been under suspicion.”
“Unjustly so, I’m sure, Mr. Lightner. She wasn’t even at that musicale where there was a robbery.”
“I know,” Mr. Lightner said. “But there were other parties and certain thefts right here which raised doubts as to her honesty.”
“If I could prove she’s innocent, would you take Linda back?” Nancy asked.
“Why—uh—yes. Of course—that is, with Tombar’s okay.”
Nancy realized that Linda would need a reference to secure a new job. She could not get one from her former employer.
Nancy thought quickly. Could she help Linda, another way? This might be Nancy’s chance to get an invitation to the affair on June twenty-sixth. If only she could catch any of the thieves who might show up!
“Mr. Lightner,” she said, “you know by this time that I’ve been trying to help Dad solve the mystery of the party thieves.”
He smiled. “Yes. He told me even I was under suspicion for a time!”
Nancy blushed and changed the subject. “May I go to the lecture at the Claytons’?” she asked.
He readily gave his consent, telling her to meet him there at seven thirty that evening.
“I’m taking personal charge,” he informed her. “I’ve decided it’s high time I did a little investigating of my own.”
“Then Mr. Tombar won’t be there?” Nancy asked.
“No,” Mr. Lightner replied. “He’s in a huff about it, too. But that’s beside the point.”
Further conversation revealed that Peter Tombar was annoyed also because Mr. Lightner had asked him not to take such long lunch hours.
Nancy smiled. “The man must have been driving out into the country a good deal,” she thought. “Well, if he doesn’t go any more, that clue’s washed out for me.”
Speaking again of the lecture, she suggested that as a precautionary measure all the cards of admission to be sent to the people who accepted be marked with a special swirl. Then no uninvited person could possibly get in without being detected. Mr. Lightner immediately agreed to Nancy’s proposal.
“I have the list here, ready for addressing,” he told her. “Shall we mark them now?”
The work was done quickly. Each card was marked on the reverse side with ink, in such a manner that the identifying character could not be altered without giving evidence of it.
“It’s essential that we tell no one what we’ve done,” Nancy advised Mr. Lightner. “Not even your secretary or Mr. Tombar.”
“Surely both of them can be trusted.”
“Nevertheless, let’s keep this our own secret.”
“Very well,” Mr. Lightner said. “I’ll personally check every invitation at the door. In that way we’ll make certain no one who shouldn’t be there gets past us.”
While waiting for the twenty-sixth, Nancy went to Mr. Johnson’s office to inquire what progress had been made in recalling the charge plates. She learned that they were coming in very slowly. He said that he did not dare push the matter, lest any dishonest employee gain an inkling of what lay behind the scheme.
“I’ll let you know if anything turns up,” the credit manager promised. “But I doubt that it will.”
Nancy had a long talk with her father. He said that he had decided to take the Lightner case, thanks to his daughter’s fine sleuthing. But the company owner refused to believe that any of his employees were not honest.
“His clients are getting a bit impatient to start their suits,” the lawyer revealed, “but we’re stalling for time.”
“If I could only uncover something worth while!” Nancy sighed. “If you hadn’t been such a good teacher, Dad, I’d certainly go to the police and insist that they shadow Tombar.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re using your head, Nancy,” Mr. Drew said. “You have nothing concrete to base your suspicions on as yet.”
“I know it.”
“But your hunches are usually good, my dear, so keep after him.”
Nancy said indeed she would, but spent most of Wednesday with George who had sent for her. The distraught girl begged again that Nancy give up the case.
“I’ll be careful, really I will,” Nancy promised. “Tomorrow I’m going to a perfectly safe high-brow lecture!”
George was in no better spirits and Nancy missed her help. All she could do was humor her. Bess was out of town, leaving Nancy with a lonesome feeling.
“But I mustn’t give up, even for a second,” she determined.
The next evening Nancy arrived at the Clayton home early. It had been a gloomy, dark day and all the lights in the house were on. To her chagrin she found not only Mr. Lightner there, but also his assistant, Mr. Tombar.
“It wasn’t necessary for him to be here,” Mr. Lightner admitted to Nancy. “But he insisted. Said he felt I might run into difficulty in handling some of the details I wasn’t used to. Of course, this is Mr. Tombar’s usual work—”
Nancy smiled and made no comment. It was obvious to her that Mr. Tombar wanted to be there! Making a great show of directing the placement of chairs, he bustled about, growling orders at everyone.
“No! No!” he yelled as a maid moved a row to make more aisle space. “Leave the chairs as I’ve placed them!”
Nancy was disgusted with his rudeness. The maid was employed by the Claytons, not the entertainment company. Tombar must have guessed her thoughts. Angrily he turned on her.
“You’re always underfoot!” he cried out, his eyes flashing. “If you’d tend to your own affairs, we could work better.”
Nancy flushed but made no response. She went to find Mr. Lightner.
He had posted himself at the front door to inspect each card that was presented. Nancy stood close by to scrutinize the people as they passed. Everyone was straightforward-looking and above suspicion.
“So far, so good,” Mr. Lightner presently whispered to the girl. “At least two thirds of the cards are in. All are authentic.”
Nancy had observed a man loitering outdoors near the parking lot. She called Mr. Lightner’s attention to him.
“Oh, don’t worry about him,” she was told. “He’s a private detective I employed. After the lecture starts, he’ll move inside and help keep an eye on the guests.”
In a few minutes the lecture began. Not all the cards had been turned in, so Mr. Lightner remained at the front door to meet latecomers.
“It looks as if the masked thief and his cohorts aren’t going to show up,” Nancy remarked. “Just to be sure no one’s prowling about the grounds, though, I’ll walk around outside and see if there’s anyone suspicious.”
She circled the house, noting that all the windows on the first floor were very high from the ground. It would be difficult to climb in and dangerous to drop from any of them!
In her tour Nancy presently came to the parking area and wandered among the cars. A lookout might be stationed in one of them! As she approached a long black sedan, Nancy was startled to see a man lying on the ground, almost under the front wheels.
“Oh,” she thought, “he’s ill!” and rushed to his side.
Kneeling, she realized that he had been knocked unconscious.
As wild ideas raced through Nancy’s mind, she received a further shock. All the lights in the Clayton house suddenly went out!