The Mysterious Mannequin (15 page)

In the dim light the Americans had not recog nized the boy, but the instant Bess saw him she cried out, “Aslanapa’s brother Mustafa! The one who lured me to the shop!”

Mustafa glared at the group. “Nancy Drew deserved what she got. She had no right to put my brother in jail!”

By this time Nancy was sitting up on the floor. She declared there was no need for her to go to a hospital or even to see a doctor.

“I guess the water broke the full impact of my fall,” she said. “I did hit my head and I’ll have some black-and-blue marks, but I’m sure I’ll be all right.”

She rubbed the side of her head vigorously to pep up the circulation.

Presently she looked up at the boy prisoner. “You know as well as I do that your brother had no right to kidnap my friend. You are what we call in our country an accessory after the fact, but I don’t know what the law here is in such cases.” She looked up at her father. “Do you, Dad?”

“No, I don’t,” he admitted. “Right now I’m more concerned about you than these lawbreakers. The police will have to deal with them. I suggest that Burt and Dave and Aisha take this boy directly to headquarters. The rest of us will drive back to where we’re staying. By that time, Nancy, you will know how you feel. You’ll want to shower and put on fresh clothes. Ned too.”

Nancy stood up and they walked toward the stairway. Coming down was a handsome young man. Seeing them, he rushed forward.

The next moment Aisha cried out, “Farouk!”

She leaped forward to meet him and the two embraced. The others held back to give Aisha and Farouk a chance to talk privately.

Bess was in ecstasy. “They found each other!” she said happily. “Oh, what a wonderful ending to the mystery!”

George reminded her that one angle of the mystery had not yet been solved—that of the mysterious mannequin.

“But it will be soon,” Bess insisted.

“I’ve been wondering,” said Nancy, “how Farouk knew we were down here.”

At that moment Aisha brought her fiancé over to introduce him. He bowed and said, “My hopes have been realized. Every day I have been passing the shoeshine stands in this vicinity and coming down here since I mailed the rug to Mr. Drew! I knew that one day Aisha and I would find each other. I understand I have every one of you to thank for this reunion. Mr. Drew, I want to apologize for running away. I was frightened of being sent to one of your American prisons, even though I was innocent. I should have had more faith in the justice of your courts.”

Aisha spoke up. “I have told Farouk that he was proved innocent.”

“That’s right,” Mr. Drew agreed. “The trouble about the smuggling charge started over here in Turkey. It was a case of mistaken identity.”

Farouk looked gratefully at the lawyer, then put an arm around Aisha. “Now we can marry,” he said.

Aisha smiled happily and said, “Would you all mind if Farouk and I spend a little time together and meet you later?”

Mr. Drew nodded. “We wouldn’t have it any other way. I shall reserve a big table for dinner in the roof restaurant of the hotel that you liked. Then we can exchange stories. Shall we say eight o’clock?”

Everyone accepted the invitation, but to herself Bess was saying, “I never can last until eight o’clock to eat. But maybe I can find something at the Hroznys’ house.”

Her hunger problem was solved by their hostess when she invited them all to assemble in the garden for a five-o’clock tea hour.

After Nancy had bathed and rested for a while, she insisted that she felt fine and her unexpected dip in the Great Cistern had not really harmed her.

While they were eating Mrs. Hrozny’s pastries, most of them sweetened with honey and filled with nuts and dates, and drinking the delicious tea from the Black Sea area, the girls brought her up to date on the mystery.

“Isn’t it romantic the way Aisha found Farouk, or shall I say Farouk found Aisha!” Bess exclaimed.

The Turkish woman smiled. “I am happy for Aisha. She is a brave girl. It was very hard for her to be parted from Farouk.”

George mentioned the dinner plans for the evening. Mrs. Hrozny smiled. “Mr. Drew has already telephoned and extended an invitation to my husband and me. He has also invited our friends the Koktens.”

“I’m glad,” said Nancy. “You have had a part in this mystery too.”

Mr. Drew had engaged a private dining room. A long table had been set up. A beautiful bouquet of roses stood in the center with trailing vines of ivy reaching all the way down to each end.

Aisha and Farouk were the last to arrive. Both appeared in colorful costume. He wore satin knee-breeches, long socks, and fancy shoes with curled-up toes. On his head was an ornamented turban such as sultans used to wear.

Aisha had on pale-blue pantaloons, slippers with curled-up toes, and a cerise blouse. Wound around her head and across her face with only her eyes showing was a white scarf, which she removed before sitting down.

Everyone clapped and there were compliments of “You look beautiful!” “You look handsome!”

The happy couple smiled and Aisha said, “We thought these costumes might be appropriate for the occasion. We wanted to show you how grateful we are that the mystery is solved.”

Mr. Drew had arranged place cards, putting himself at one end with Mrs. Hrozny at his right and on his left Mrs. Kokten. Nancy was assigned to the other end of the table with Mr. Hrozny on her right and Mr. Kokten on her left. The rest of the guests were seated in between, with the bride-and groom-to-be facing the center of the table on one side.

During dinner there was lively chatter among the guests, but as soon as dessert had been finished, Farouk stood up.

“I want to take this opportunity of thanking everyone again. Through you our prayers were answered.” He turned and looked directly at Nancy. “You were the prime mover in bringing Aisha here. After I fled, I realized I would never be happy until she was with me. But I saw no chance of this. I did not dare communicate with her. I am descended from a long line of proud people, the Tahmasps. However, I wanted to tell where I was hiding and thought up the idea of the rug.”

He smiled. “Mr. Drew seemed like the logical person to whom to send it and he could tell me how my case came out. He is a very good lawyer and then I had heard his daughter is an excellent amateur detective. I thought she could figure out through the words and symbols in the rug where I could be found.”

At that there were cheers and clapping for half a minute.

Farouk sat down. When the applause had died down, George called out, “One part of the mystery has not been solved. Will you please tell us where the mannequin is and if there is a treasure hidden in her.”

Farouk and Aisha exchanged glances, then Aisha stood up. Her eyes were twinkling as she said, “I’m going to ask Nancy to tell you. She figured it out some time ago and spoke to me about it one day when we went for a drive. I admitted she was right and asked that she keep the secret until we had Farouk’s permission to reveal it.”

As Aisha sat down, Nancy got up. She glanced at her Turkish friend, who gave her a wink. “Aisha was the mannequin!”

Nancy’s friends looked at the young detective in utter astonishment. Finally Ned said, “How in the world did you figure that out?”

Nancy said that her suspicions had been aroused by her recollection that about six years ago she was sure that the mannequin had winked at her.

“Even though I went back to the shopwindow and stared at her several times and she never blinked, I could not get it out of my mind. Then I learned from neighbors that the mannequin was never in the window for long periods. This seemed a little strange to me and I began to wonder if it was because she might be a real person and therefore unable to pose for long at a time.

“You recall the slippers that were under the trap door in the back of the shop? They definitely indicated someone had walked in them but not far. I figured that perhaps the mannequin walked through the shop. Then Farouk would lift her up onto the bench and cover her lap with a rug. By the way, Aisha hid her costume under the trap door. When Farouk took it away he forgot the slippers.”

Nancy smiled. “I was puzzled as to why Farouk could love a mannequin so much that he would want her brought from America to Turkey. Of course it might have been because he had hidden jewels or something else in her. But taking her abroad would not be feasible. Custom officials would be sure to find anything secreted.”

Nancy’s listeners were dumbfounded. Finally Ned spoke up, “One day when we were on a trip up the river you sketched an imaginary picture of the mannequin’s face. I didn’t pay much attention to it except to notice she was very beautiful. Did you think she looked like Aisha?”

Nancy laughed. “Only the eyes.”

“You are amazing,” Mr. Hrozny said.

Everyone clapped and called out compliments to Nancy as she sat down. When it was quiet again, George turned to Farouk, “Please don’t keep me in suspense any longer. Was there or was there not a treasure involved?”

Once again Farouk got up. “In a way, there was. Aisha became my mannequin to help protect it.”

The young Turkish rug dealer went on to say that many people came to his shop and brought cash. Often it amounted to a thousand dollars. His listeners gasped.

“No doubt I was foolish,” Farouk said, “not to put the money in a bank. Several times I had been robbed of small amounts of money. One of the thieves was Aslanapa. I know he suspected I had large sums around. It was then that I arranged for Aisha to keep the money in her clothes while she was posing as a mannequin. Fortunately no one ever suspected our secret. When I felt I had to flee the United States, I sewed all the money in my own clothing and brought it with me.”

At that point Mr. Drew took an envelope from his pocket, left his chair, and came over to Farouk’s side.

“You left money with me to pay for my services,” he said. “It was far too much. I am glad now to deliver it to you.” He smiled. “Maybe you will want to use it for a memento to put in your new home.”

Farouk insisted it should be used to pay for the lawyer’s trip to Istanbul, but Mr. Drew would not hear of this. “You keep it.”

Aisha spoke up. “The most wonderful memento we could have would be a fine painting of all you people who helped to solve the mystery.”

The mere mention of the word mystery quickened Nancy’s pulse, and filled her mind with questions. What would her next adventure be? Would it take her far from home? Her questions were answered a few days later when she was asked to investigate another puzzling case, The Crooked Banister.

It was only Farouk’s next remark that jolted the pretty detective back to the present. “In this painting I want Nancy Drew to have the place of honor in the middle for having brought my mannequin to me.”