Chapter 21 The Clue of the Velvet Mask by Carolyn Keene
An Important Identification
“You’ll make a detective out of me yet, Nancy Drew.” Ned laughed, then became serious. “Here’s my idea. Who is it that the gang is afraid of?”
“The police, of course.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Ned said. “It was Nancy Drew they tried to kidnap, not Chief Denny.”
Nancy smiled. “Yes. Go on.”
“It was you who caught that woman over at the jail. The gang will lie low for a while if you’re around. But if you disappear they’ll come out of hiding and the police can capture them. Which”—Ned grinned from ear to ear—“will leave you free for the evening—to give me your entire attention.”
Nancy laughed. “To think I fell for that! You win, Ned. Only—”
“No if’s or but’s. I have tickets for a fraternity picnic and dance some of my local fraternity brothers are giving.”
Nancy assured Ned that she wanted to attend the party. “If I should run into a clue, though, that I had to follow up you wouldn’t mind, would you?”
“You’re a hound for punishment,” Ned teased. “Oh, well, if you do get a chance to crack the case, count me in. Another black eye won’t matter. And something else. No work Thursday or Friday. Thursday we go to the yacht club races and Fourth of July belongs to your dad, he told me.”
“I’ll remember.”
Early next morning Nancy telephoned the police captain and learned that the prisoner had refused to talk. She suggested bringing Linda Seeley to headquarters to see if she could identify her. It was possible that at some time or other the woman might have called at the Lightner Entertainment Company or attended one of the parties they had arranged.
Hopefully Nancy dressed in a flattering yellow sports dress and picked up Linda at her office. By special permission from the chief of police they were permitted to see the prisoner. Nancy watched closely to see if she would show any sign of recognition of Linda. The girl detective was sure that the woman did, but the sign was so slight that Nancy did not bother to mention it.
“Don’t you think it would go easier for you to talk now than to have the police prove you guilty?” Nancy asked the prisoner.
The answer was a hateful glare as the woman turned her back. The girls returned to Chief Denny’s office.
“I’m sure I’ve seen your prisoner before,” Linda reported.
“Where?” he asked.
“At the Lightner Entertainment Company. Unless my memory is playing a trick on me, she was in Mr. Lightner’s office to see him about a party. She never gave it, though. She seemed more interested in the private collection of Indian and Greek religious masks than she was in having a party.”
“Did she talk to Mr. Lightner?” Nancy asked.
“No. To Mr. Tombar. Mr. Lightner was away but Mr. Tombar used his private office. Soon after the woman came in he sent me on an errand.”
“So that you couldn’t hear their conversation,” Nancy remarked.
“I guess so. Nancy, do you think that she’s the one who stole those masks?”
“She or someone in the gang.”
Chief Denny was very much interested in this bit of information. He suggested that perhaps Linda could identify something found on the prisoner. Detectives had grilled her several times since her arrest without the slightest success. Not a single clue as to her real identity had been obtained, and every tag had been removed from her clothing.
“But our policewoman did find this,” the officer said, taking a piece of unusual jewelry from his desk drawer.
“Oh, yes, that bracelet came from Lightner’s,” Linda told him. “We rent it to go with a Turkish costume.”
“You’ve been a great help, Miss Seeley,” Chief Denny said. “Maybe now that woman will talk.”
The girls waited to hear the result, but it was negative. She still would admit nothing.
Nancy was tempted to tell the chief her suspicions about the Blue Iris Inn. But recalling her father’s warning that she must have more specific evidence against Tombar before accusing him, she merely said:
“If I should want some police assistance to do a little investigating during the next few days, may I have it?”
“Certainly. Any time, and thanks for your help so far,” the officer said.
Nancy drove Linda back to work. On a hunch she asked for Tombar’s address and went to the house. As she suspected, it was vacant, and a neighbor told her that he and his wife had moved away rather unexpectedly.
“Do you have his new address?” Nancy asked, thinking to herself that Tombar’s sudden departure looked like an admission of guilt.
“No, I don’t. They went at night and didn’t even say good-by.”
“This is my unlucky day,” Nancy reflected gloomily.
Her next stop was at Taylor’s store where she talked to the young clerk in the receiving and marking department. He assured her that Mr. Snecker was back at work. At the moment, however, he was away from the store, delivering merchandise in one of the trucks.
“I didn’t know anyone in your department is supposed to do that,” Nancy said.
“We don’t as a regular thing,” the clerk answered. “But when Mr. Snecker’s asthma gets bad, he likes to get out, so he drives sometimes in place of a man who’s taking the day off.”
Nancy did not comment but she wondered if the manager of Taylor’s knew about this.
“Well, will Mr. Snecker be here in the department tomorrow?” she inquired.
“No. He’s going to take an extra long Fourth-of-July week end, and is starting on a trip this evening. In fact, he won’t even come back after work today.”
“Oh, that means he won’t return until Monday,” said Nancy, greatly disappointed.
Nancy did not want to discontinue work on the case. But with dates of her own and a Fourth-of-July celebration with her father, there was no chance for further sleuthing until Saturday.
But on Saturday morning she discovered that the Taylor Department Store, as well as most businesses in town, was closed. She planned to go to the office of the auctioneer to inquire whether Mr. Tombar had bought any of the furnishings of the Blue Iris Inn. But she found that it would not open until Monday.
“Anyway, I can ride out to the old inn and look around there again,” Nancy thought. “I’ll be back in plenty of time to dress for the picnic tonight. I wonder if Bess would go along.”
Finding a fruit stain on her dress, Nancy changed to another costume. As she was combing her hair, she guiltily realized that she had not visited George for several days.
“I’ll stop there on my way,” she decided, “then see about Bess.”
Bess was there, reading to her cousin. She looked very pretty in a blue tailored dress, but George appeared wan and unhappy.
“My, I’m glad you came, Nancy!” Bess exclaimed. “George has been frightfully worried that something might have happened to you.”
“To me! What an idea!” Nancy laughed it off.
“I worry every minute that you’ll get into real trouble,” George confessed.
“Why, I’ve been so good lately it hurts,” Nancy replied.
She did not explain further, however, not wishing to distress her friend by offering any argument. She could not understand George’s strange attitude.
“Where are you going now, Nancy?” Bess asked presently.
“Well, I thought—”
“You’re heading somewhere that will lead to danger!” George instantly guessed, and grabbed her friend’s arm.
“Now, George, I was only thinking of a little ride into the country to a place called Blue Iris Inn.”
“That place! Bess told me about it. At least I got it out of her. You mustn’t go there alone, Nancy.”
“It only seemed spooky to Bess because the weeds have taken over.”
“That’s right,” Bess said quickly. “I’ll go with you, Nancy, if you want to go.”
George twisted her hands nervously. “Don’t do it,” she pleaded. “Anything you girls might learn isn’t worth the risk.”
Bess and Nancy soothed their chum as best they could.
“Besides,” declared Nancy reassuringly, “it’ll have to be a short trip. I must be back in a few hours to keep a date with Ned. We’re going to a picnic some of his fraternity brothers are giving.”
Later, while driving the last mile toward the inn, they began to discuss their friend’s bewildering attitude.
“I wish the doctors could find out what’s wrong with George,” Nancy said.
“What if she never gets better?” Bess wailed.
“Don’t suggest such a thing!” Nancy chided. “Now you give me the shivers.”
She would have said more had her attention not been drawn to a green automobile some distance ahead. Thinking it best not to overtake it, she deliberately slowed down.
Soon the girls neared the old inn. The car ahead turned into the driveway. Nancy wondered if Tombar was in it.
“Oh, we can’t stop there now!” Bess exclaimed in alarm. “We’ll be spotted if we do.”
Nancy had no intention of stopping. “I’ll drive past and park,” she told Bess. “We must walk back without being seen so that we can do some sleuthing.”
A moment later the girls sighted the car parked near a side entrance of the Blue Iris Inn. As they passed, the driver alighted. Nancy recognized him at once.
“Peter Tombar!” she exclaimed. “If he’s here for the reason I think he is, maybe this will turn out to be my luckiest day yet!”