Chapter 8 The Invisible Intruder by Carolyn Keene
Rare. Medium. Well Done.
GINGERLY Nancy set the mysterious box in the driveway of the motel. She eyed it meditatively.
Finally she said, “I don’t believe there’s a bomb inside. If it was intended for us, it would have gone off by this time or be ticking.”
Bess urged Nancy not to open the box. She said, “Maybe when you lift the lid, the thing will go off.”
By this time George’s curiosity was getting the better of her. “I’d like to know what’s in the box,” she said.
Nancy looked around for something with which to pry it open.
George spotted a long-handled garden tool propped against the garage. “That rake’s just what we need.”
She got the rake and handed it to Nancy. Then, keeping at what she considered a safe distance, Nancy gently pried up the lid. It fell to one side.
The three girls burst into laughter. The box was full of papers!
“What a mean joke!” said Bess.
Nancy and the cousins walked over and looked more closely. There seemed to be an assortment of letters and documents inside. On top lay a hand-printed request:
NANCY DREW, I BEG OF YOU, KEEP THESE PAPERS SAFE UNTIL I COME FOR THEM.
There was no signature, but Nancy told Bess and George she was sure these were the papers which Madame Tarantella had begged her to take along.
George snorted. “She certainly was determined that you’d get them. What are you going to do now?”
“Call my father and ask his advice.”
Unfortunately there was no answer when she dialed her home.
“I’ll call Dad in the morning,” she said.
Meanwhile, Bess and George had been discussing how and when the box had been put in the car.
“It must have been during the time we were in the séance room before Madame Tarantella came in,” George surmised. “She was probably the one who locked the car doors so no one could steal the papers.”
While Nancy and the cousins prepared for bed, they talked about the strange turn of events and why Nancy had been chosen by the medium to keep the papers for her.
“There’s something sinister in back of the whole thing,” Bess declared. “I certainly hope, Nancy, that you won’t have another thing to do with that woman, even if the ghost hunters don’t solve this particular mystery.”
Before breakfast the next morning Nancy again telephoned her father. This time he was at home.
After hearing the story, he said, “Have nothing to do with those papers! Take them right back to that Madame Tarantella.”
“All right, Dad. I just wanted to be sure that was what I should do with them, rather than keep them as evidence against this woman if she’s doing something illegal.”
The lawyer reminded Nancy that the papers were private property. “Even though the medium asked you to keep them, she didn’t suggest that you read them.”
“All right, Dad, I’ll take them back.”
At breakfast Nancy told the full story of the evening’s happenings to Ned, Burt, and Dave. But she did not reveal the prophecy about Bess. “Would you all like to drive down to the medium’s hut with me?”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Dave answered. “I’d like to see this strange creature.” He grinned. “Maybe she can tell me something about my future.”
At this Bess turned scarlet and Dave asked worriedly, “Did I say something I shouldn’t have?”
Nancy and George could not refrain from laughing. George said, “Let Bess tell you what Madame Tarantella said about her immediate future.”
“I’ll do nothing of the sort,” Bess replied indignantly, “and if you girls dare say a word—”
“Oh, come on,” Dave coaxed, but the three girls remained silent.
Nancy and George wondered whether Dave would somehow make Bess tell him what the prophecy had been.
A little while later the three couples drove into Vernonville and went directly to the medium’s hut. There was no answer to their persistent knocking.
“Do you suppose she isn’t at home, or just won’t let us in?” George asked.
Nancy shrugged and suggested that they do a little shopping and come back later. Just then a young woman came out of an apartment house across the street.
She called over to them, “Are you looking for Madame Tarantella?”
“Yes, we are,” Nancy replied.
The woman smiled. “I guess she won’t be telling any more fortunes here.”
“Why?” George asked.
The neighbor said that about two o’clock that morning a car and a truck had driven up to the hut. Boxes, suitcases, and all sorts of paraphernalia were packed into the two vehicles.
“Then Madame Tarantella drove off in the car with two men.”
“Maybe she was kidnapped!” Bess exclaimed. “The medium told our friend Nancy last night that she was afraid some man was going to harm her and rob her.”
The neighbor looked alarmed. “If that’s the case, I hope the police won’t ask me for a description of those people in the car, because I don’t want to become involved. Anyway, I couldn’t see the men well enough.”
“Did you notice anything about them?” Nancy queried.
“Well, one was tall and slender and had bushy hair. The other man was shorter.”
The ghost hunters looked at one another. Could the tall, slender, bushy-haired one be Wilbur Prizer?
The neighbor went on to say, “I’m glad Madame Tarantella’s gone.”
“Why?” Ned put in.
“Because too many funny-looking characters were always coming out of and going into that place.”
“You mean dishonest-looking people?” Nancy asked.
“Well, I can’t exactly say that, but I wouldn’t want any of them calling on me. Sorry I couldn’t help you more. I’ve got to go now.” She hurried down the street.
The girls drove back to the motel and again Nancy telephoned to her father.
“I certainly don’t want you involved in this,” he told his daughter. “I know a lawyer in Vernonville named Kittredge. I’ll get in touch with him and see if he would be willing to keep the box in his safe and to ask the police to hunt for the vanished medium. She may have been kidnapped.”
Mr. Drew advised Nancy to stay in her room and wait for a phone call. About half an hour later she received a message from Mr. Kittredge, saying he would be over in a little while.
“Please wait for me,” he requested. “I’ll come to your room and pick up the papers. From what your father told me, it probably would be best if you did not appear on the street again with them.”
Nancy promised to stay right there. She suggested to Bess and George that they need not wait. She would join them later.
“We’ll get the others and go down to the pool,” George said. “The water looks so inviting.”
The girls had been gone only a short time when there was a knock on the door. Nancy opened it.
“Hi, Helen,” she said.
“You alone?” Helen asked, stepping inside.
“Yes, I’m waiting for a friend of Dad’s.”
As Helen moved past a table on which Nancy had set the box of papers, she accidentally knocked it to the floor. The contents scattered in every direction.
“I’m sorry!” Helen said. “I’ll help you pick them up.”
As Nancy began to return the papers to the box, she noticed that one was a drawing which showed a section of a property development. She went on gathering up the papers.
“Oh!” she exclaimed.
“What’s the matter?” Helen asked.
“Here’s a letter to Madame Tarantella signed Wilbur Prizer!”
Helen was amazed. “Do you think there’s some connection between the two?”
“I’m beginning to think so more and more,” Nancy replied.
As she went on picking up the papers, Nancy presently came across a telegram. The sender’s name and address had been cut off. It was addressed to Madame Tarantella and said:
RARE. MEDIUM. WELL DONE.
“What in the world does that mean?” Helen asked.
Nancy smiled. “All I can do is guess. Of course it’s a take-off on words applied to cooked meat. I think it’s a code. Perhaps medium means Madame Tarantella and she did some rare bit of work and was being told she had done it well.”
“Clever deduction,” Helen remarked.
Many thoughts and conjectures were racing through Nancy’s mind as the last of the papers were placed in the box. She set it back on the table, which was near the door.
She and Helen continued to talk as Nancy moved over to the bureau and looked in the mirror to see if her hair needed recombing. The next moment she froze.
Reflected in the glass was a man’s hand and arm reaching around the corner of the partially opened door to the hall. He was about to grab the box!