(#16) The Clue of the Tapping Heels (6 page)

“And he might be the tapper,” she added.

“You could be right, Nancy. That pudgy man who followed you and who attacked Ned at the school fits the description of the Gus Woonton who ran away. He had a penchant for running away since the time he was a little boy.”

“You mean running away from home?” Nancy asked.

Her father nodded. “Yes, and also from school and camp, and at times from hotels when the family was on a trip. When Gus reached his late teens, he became worse, so his parents finally took him to the Beverly.”

“What about the guardians?” Nancy asked.

“There was no mention of them. But the Beverly’s lawyer promised to call me if he finds out anything more about the William Woontons.”

“And there are no clues as to where Gus was running to this time?” Nancy queried.

“Not one, and I think your guess is as good as anybody else‘s,” her father remarked. “Tonight we’ll have the police keep an even closer watch on Miss Carter’s house. Since all the locks on the entrance doors have been changed, the tapper won’t be able to get inside. The officers can close in quickly and grab him if he comes to the house.”

As Nancy continued preparing the meal, she and her father speculated about whether or not Gus Woonton lived in the house regularly or just slept there once in a while. And was he the tapper? If so, why was he tapping? Was he just acting spooky to annoy the people in the house, hoping to get them out? Or was there a more sinister motive behind his actions?

Just as dinner was ready, the bell rang. Ned Nickerson had arrived. At once he asked Nancy if she had solved the mystery.

“It’s not solved, but we have some good clues,” she replied, and briefed him on the latest developments.

“Sounds like progress all right,” he commented.

After the meal was over and the kitchen had been tidied, Nancy and Ned had to hurry to make the rehearsal on time.

As they walked into the school a few minutes later, he said, “Tonight, instead of sittin in the auditorium, I think I’ll play detective and walk around the corridors to keep a lookout for that pudgy fellow.”

They separated and Nancy went up to the stage. Ned made sure that the front door was securely locked as well as all the side entrances. On one of his trips into the corridor back of the stage, he thought he smelled smoke.

“It seems to be coming from under the stage,” Ned decided, and opened the door to a stairway. He ran down the steps.

A thin wisp of smoke was coming from the prop room next to the dressing rooms. A fire extinguisher hung on the wall. He grabbed it. Turning the heavy spray can over, he sent a volume of foam onto a pile of clothes which were on fire in the center of the floor.

“I hope this does it,” he thought.

In the meantime Nancy found herself with a fifteen-minute recess from the rehearsal.

“I’ll see if Ned has learned anything,” she told herself, and went out into the corridor back of the stage.

As she neared the doorway to the basement, Nancy smelled smoke. She hurried down the stairway and saw Ned busy with the extinguisher.

“Oh, Nancy, I’m glad you’ve come. I’m afraid this is too much of a blaze for me to put out alone.”

Nancy agreed. “I’d better call the fire department right away.”

“Good idea,” Ned replied.

She dashed up the stairway and turned the knob on the door which had closed. It was locked!

Frantically Nancy knocked on the door but she had little hope that anyone would hear her. The orchestra was playing loudly.

Nevertheless, she thumped until her knuckles hurt. Still no one came to open the door!

CHAPTER VIII

Missing Diary

FOR a moment Nancy panicked. The situation was desperate. She and Ned must get out of the basement!

She continued to pound her fists on the door and yell as loudly as she could. But the orchestra was still playing a lively number and it drowned out her frantic cries.

“Maybe there’s another exit from the prop room,” Nancy told herself.

Though the smoke was now thick, she went back down the stairs. Her smarting eyes caught sight of another fire extinguisher hanging on the wall. She grabbed it off the hook.

Before using it, Nancy ran into the powder room and held two towels under a faucet. When they were soaking wet, she hurried to Ned’s side and handed one to him. He quickly tied it over his nose and mouth, while Nancy put the other one across hers.

“Are the firemen coming? Let’s get out of here!” Ned said grimly.

“We can‘t! The door’s locked! And nobody heard me yelling.”

Ned did not answer. He grabbed the new extinguisher, which was more effective, and played it on the flames. Nancy sprayed a stream with the one he had used. Finally the blaze began to die down.

The couple started looking for another exit but there was none. As they went up the smoke-filled stairway, the door to the corridor suddenly opened. There were exclamations of dismay from above.

“There’s a fire in the prop room!” a man exclaimed. “Call the fire department! Quick! Call the police!”

Nancy and Ned scooted up and explained to them what had happened.

“You put out the fire?” a girl asked unbelievingly. “Why, it’s Nancy Drew! Oh, I think you’re wonderful! I could never be that brave!”

“This is my friend Ned Nickerson,” Nancy said. “He discovered the fire and should get the credit.”

Other members of the cast and the director now crowded around the couple and demanded to hear the whole story. Nancy and Ned quickly explained, then asked who had locked the door to the basement. Everyone denied having done it, or having been downstairs.

“I’m sure,” said Nancy, “that the fire was set deliberately.”

“What!” Mr. Skank cried out.

By this time firemen and police had arrived. After an examination of the prop room, they agreed that the fire was of an incendiary nature. Someone had deliberately placed costumes in a heap on the floor, oil-soaked them, and started the blaze.

“How wicked!” a young woman cried out.

Nancy and Ned had been whispering about the possibility that the pudgy man might have been the one who had done it. They speculated that possibly he had sneaked into the building while the actors and actresses were arriving. The couple queried each one in the cast, but none of them had seen anyone who fitted that description.

“We have no leads at all,” Nancy said, disappointed.

“One may turn up,” Ned replied. “The police will probably find something.”

The firemen and police were sure that the arsonist had escaped. Nevertheless, each classroom was thoroughly searched. But they found no one.

One officer said, “What I’d like to know is his motive for starting the fire. It’s rather farfetched, but it is possible that someone who was turned down for a part in the play became disgruntled and wanted revenge. Mr. Skank, do you by any chance know of such a person?”

“No,” the director answered quickly. “But I understand there’s a gang of firebugs around here. I’m inclined to think those bad boys are responsible.”

By this time the odor from the smoke had permeated the stage. Between this unpleasantness and the fact that many of the players were upset by the unfortunate affair, the director dismissed them all for the night.

“I’m glad to go,” Nancy said to Ned. “I couldn’t possibly have rehearsed my part. All I want to do is get home and shampoo my hair. It smells of smoke and my clothes do too.”

Then she changed the subject. “If the arsonist was Gus, why do you think he did it? And why did he take such drastic measures?”

Ned reminded Nancy that a person with Gus’s reputation was unpredictable.

“He could be capable of almost anything. It’s my guess he’s trying to harm you or me, Nancy, so you won’t be able to continue with the case. Then he’d be free to carry on his tapping without interruption.”

Nancy frowned. “You mean he would go so far as to hope you’d run downstairs to the fire and I’d follow? If we didn‘t, he’d let the fire eat up through the stage and maybe harm people?”

“Who knows what that idiot had in mind?” Ned remarked angrily.

“Do you think he locked the door?”

“Yes.”

When they reached the Drew house, Nancy’s father was just driving in from a meeting he had attended. He was amazed that the rehearsal was over so early, but even more amazed when he heard the reason for it.

“I don’t like what’s going on,” Mr. Drew said. “By the way, I have learned nothing more about Gus Woonton or his parents or the whereabouts of any of them.”

Nancy suggested that they look through Gus’s diary to see if they could find any clues. She brought the book down from her bedroom and the three took turns reading from it while they ate some cookies and Coke Nancy had brought in.

“I’d say Gus is lucky to be out of prison,” Ned remarked, after reading several items. “Man, the things he pulled, even as a kid!”

Mr. Drew nodded. “I don’t see how his parents stood it. And Gus was pretty cool about it all. Listen to this item:

‘August 28—We’re still at the Grand Hotel and everybody in it bores me. This morning I sneaked off before breakfast and helped myself to a motorboat. Boy, did I have fun! Scared a lot of people on the lake half out of their wits. I pulled in near a dock where I saw a man’s clothes. Guess he’d gone swimming. And there was a wallet; just waiting for me to take it!’

“I’d say the guy is an egomaniac,” the lawyer added.

The last notation in the diary, Mr. Drew pointed out, had been written four years before on the day Gus had been taken to the Beverly. This puzzled Nancy. If Gus had recently visited his old home, why hadn’t he written this in his diary?

“Maybe it’s a friend of Gus’s who comes there,” she said. “Dad, would you find out from the Beverly whether Gus had a pal who might have left there about the same time he did?”

“I’ll do it tomorrow,” her father promised.

Ned said he must leave. “Nancy, if you don’t need my car any more, I’ll take it.”

“All right. I guess there’s no use in my trying to fool anyone.”

The following morning Nancy hurried down to the kitchen to prepare her father’s breakfast. While the oatmeal was cooking, Nancy decided to check a couple of items in the diary. She had put it on a table in the living room.

“Why, it’s gone!” Nancy exclaimed when she saw the book was not on the table.

After a moment’s thought she decided that her father probably had taken it upstairs when he went to bed. But a few minutes later, when he came down to breakfast, Mr. Drew said he had not carried it to his room.

“I didn’t touch it.”

Father and daughter stared at each other for several seconds. “It must have been stolen!” Nancy said slowly.

The Drews quickly checked doors and windows. All were locked and chains on the front and back doors were in place. Nothing else had been taken.

“Someone got in here somehow,” the lawyer said, setting his jaw firmly.

Puzzled, Nancy and her father ran upstairs. The only windows which were open were those in their bedrooms. The Drews could find no evidence on any of them that an intruder had entered the house. The screens were locked in place and there were no holes in them. Furthermore, no personal property had been removed.

Nancy hurried to the third floor, followed by her father. Certainly someone had gained access to the house.

Nancy said, “Since the intruder wanted the diary, it’s apparent he was Gus or a friend of his.”

“It looks that way,” Mr. Drew agreed.

No burglar was in sight but a window at the far end of the attic was wide open. There was no screen in it.

“We never leave that window open,” said Nancy.

“But only a human fly could climb up here on the outside!” Mr. Drew declared.

CHAPTER IX

Suspicious Salesman

As Nancy hurried to the open attic window, she wondered if someone might be clinging to the sill and trying to hide. There were no fingers showing and cautiously she looked out.

“See anything?” Mr. Drew asked, joining her.

“Nobody in sight,” Nancy replied. “But, Dad, look! Here’s a natural ladder.”

She pointed to a stout trellis which ran from the ground to the roof.

“A lot of those leaves have been torn off,” Nancy said. “I guess the intruder came up this way.”

“He’s still a human fly,” her father remarked. “The man could have fallen and broken his neck. He must be mighty sure of himself to have attempted such a climb.”

A thought came to Nancy’s mind. “Dad, it never occurred to me to look for a trellis at Miss Carter’s. Maybe the tapper gets into her attic that way.”

“Let me know what you find,” the lawyer said.

Before leaving for his office, Mr. Drew decided to board up the attic window. He found a piece of wood in the garage and soon had it in place.

“I’m glad you did that instead of ripping the vines off the house,” Nancy said as they ate breakfast. “The ivy looks so pretty.”

Later, as she was clearing the table, Nancy realized that actually she was not very safe from her pursuer. Despite all her precautions, he knew she had brought the diary home. That meant the tapper or someone else who slept in the secret room had discovered that the diary was missing.

“I still have that cupboard key in my purse,” Nancy reminded herself. “Someone may try to snatch it.”

She decided to put the key on a ribbon and hang it around her neck. An hour later, with warnings from her father still ringing in her ears, Nancy drove away. She locked herself in the convertible and turned on the air conditioner. As she rode along, Nancy began to feel easier. No one seemed to be following her.

Upon arriving at Miss Carter‘s, Nancy parked the car in the driveway and then walked all the way around the house. No vines were growing on it and there was nothing else to which a person might cling in order to climb any of the walls.

“Well, there goes my theory about the human fly,” she thought. “But how does that tapper get into the house?”

She found Miss Carter and Hannah Gruen very upset. Five more cats had been stolen during the night!