The Whispering Statue (10 page)

Authors: Carolyn Keene

Tags: #Art Thieves, #Yacht Clubs, #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Adventures and Adventures, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Juvenile Fiction, #Mothers and Sons, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Art Objects - Reproduction, #Fraud, #Mystery Fiction, #Adventure Stories, #Art Objects, #Swindlers and Swindling, #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Statues, #Mystery and Detective Stories

“I must investigate this room further,” Nancy thought.

She closed the door, put on her coat, and walked toward the front entrance. Mr. Basswood was standing there. He held the door open, impatient for her to leave. Hurrying toward the shop were Bess and George. The cousins looked excited.

“You all right?” they asked Nancy. And Bess added, “Wasn’t the quake a fright?” The two girls stepped into the hallway of the shop.

“Oh, Mr. Basswood, you’re to go to the hospital immediately,” George told him.

“What!” he exclaimed.

Bess said the two girls had taken an injured woman to the hospital. “The patients there were pretty frightened. We went up to see Mr. Atkin. He kept saying he had to talk to you at once, and that somebody must go get you immediately.”

A look of alarm came over Mr. Basswood’s face. Then he regained his composure. “You’re sure of this?” he asked.

Both Bess and George nodded. Bess said, “We told him we were coming over to your shop and would tell you.”

Mr. Basswood looked skeptical. Did he suspect some trick? He asked, “If Atkin wanted me in such a hurry, why didn’t he telephone?”

“The nurse at the desk said she’d tried but your phone didn’t answer,” George said.

“It didn’t ring,” the shop owner said. “Did it, Miss Lynbrook?”

“No. I’ll go try it now and see if it’s out of order.”

“You stay out of my office!” Mr. Basswood said firmly.

Nancy was eager to do some real sleuthing. If she could get Mr. Basswood to go to the hospital and leave her there, she would have an opportunity to look around for clues. To her relief Mr. Basswood turned, went back to his office, and closed the door.

Quickly Nancy whispered to the girls, “Don’t go! Hide some place.”

George took the cue. In a loud voice she said, “Come on, Debbie! Hurry! What say we go have some fun?”

Nancy grinned gratefully, then closed the front door with a bang. Quickly she tiptoed to the rear room and slipped behind the highboy. Bess and George had already hidden themselves in the large room.

Seconds later they heard the shop owner lock his office door from the outside. He walked through the hall and let himself out the front door. When Bess and George felt sure he was not going to return, they hurried to the back room.

“What do you want us to do?” George asked Nancy.

“Follow me and I’ll show you.”

Bess grabbed the other two girls. “This is awfully scary. Suppose we’re caught!”

“We’ll have to take that chance,” Nancy told her. “I found a hidden room. There are lots of things in it.”

She opened the door and tried to find a light switch on the wall but could not locate one. Figuring there might be a hanging light over the workbench, she started toward it.

“Shouldn’t we shut the door?” Bess queried. “Yes,” Nancy replied.

By this time the girls’ eyes had become accustomed to the small amount of light which filtered through the dusty skylight. Bess and George were intrigued by the huge picture frames. They were old and covered with gold leaf.

Nancy noticed a stack of books, tied up, that stood on the floor. “I wonder if they’re part of Mrs. Merriam’s collection,” she thought. “I’ll look.”

She walked over to the pile and her suspicions were confirmed. A card had been tucked under the cord. There was one word on it—Merriam.

Before the girls had a chance to examine the books, they heard heavy footsteps outside the door. Nancy knew they were not Mr. Basswood’s. Was there a burglar in the shop? And what should she do?

Instantly the young detective made a decision. Grabbing Bess and George by their arms, she pointed toward the empty portrait frames.

“Pose!” Nancy whispered.

The three girls stepped through the frames against the canvas. Each one kneeled and took a different pose. They assumed profile positions so they could not be identified easily if the intruder should happen to know them.

“This is fearful,” Bess thought nervously, but she held very still. George and Nancy held rigid poses.

The door opened and a muscular man clomped into the room. Nancy almost forgot to hold her pose. He was the man who had forced his way into the Drew house by their front door and attacked her father!

“I must capture him!” she told herself but wondered how to do so.

The man began looking around and mumbling to himself. At first the girls could not distinguish any words but presently he talked louder.

“The money’s got to be here somewhere!” he said. “He owes it to Marco and me. We got a right to take it!”

The girls held rigid poses as the intruder entered the room

In his search the newcomer suddenly lurched into Bess’s frame. It fell over, striking Bess who also went down. Instantly the intruder realized that the person in the frame was alive!

“Oh!” cried Bess.

The man gave a deep grunt, then yanked Bess up from the floor. At the same instant Nancy and George leaped from their frames!

CHAPTER XIV

Suspicious Caller

THE intruder was taken completely by surprise. It was easy for the three girls to hold him. As he became obstreperous, George used a judo trick which buckled the man’s knees and he fell.

“Let me go!” he shouted.

“Hold him!” Nancy said. “I’ll get the police!” She was sure George with Bess’s help could manage the man until officers arrived.

In her excitement Nancy forgot to disguise her voice and wondered if the intruder might have recognized it.

“I hope not.”

She raced from the shop to a corner pay telephone a block away and called the police. Nancy explained the situation to Captain Turner. He promised to send a squad car at once.

As she hung up, a disturbing thought occurred to Nancy. Although the police captain could be relied upon to keep her real identity a secret, Debbie Lynbrook’s part in the incident was bound to come out.

“Mr. Basswood will know I was investigating the place. He’s so suspicious of me already he’ll probably discharge me.”

As Nancy ran back to the art shop, she hoped that Bess and George had been able to hold the man. A moment later she saw the shop door burst open. The girls’ captive was running away! Nancy was too far away to stop him, but in a moment Bess and George dashed from the building.

By this time the man had sped across the street and jumped into a car with its motor running. A companion who sat at the wheel immediately took off.

Nancy cried out, “Stop! Stop!” and ran into the street.

Instantly the driver swerved in her direction as if he intended to run her down. She jumped back to the sidewalk just in time.

“What luck!” she thought. “I wonder what happened.”

By this time Bess and George had come up to her. Shamefaced, they said that despite George’s judo skill, they had been unable to hold the man.

“He has muscles like steel,” George remarked. “Sorry, Nancy.”

Bess spoke up. “We did our best. Who do you think the man was—a burglar?”

Nancy explained that he was the man who had escaped through the front entrance of the Drew home the night Mrs. Merriam was there.

“Since he didn’t break into the art shop, he must have a key to it,” said George. “This is proof that he’s in league with Mr. Basswood.”

“Yes,” Nancy replied. “I’ve been sure of that ever since he broke into our house and attacked Dad. Well, girls,” she added, “let’s hope the police catch him. And don’t feel too bad about ‘losing your man.’ We got a valuable clue.”

“We did?” Bess asked blankly.

Nancy pointed out that the intruder had murmured the name Marco. She at once thought of M De K. “The person could be Marco De K?” the young detective said excitedly. “And if he’s tied in with the mystery of the whispering statue, Marco may know where it is. We must try to find him.”

“Apparently,” George added, “Mr. Basswood owes Marco and this man a large sum of money.”

“Do you suppose,” Bess suggested, “that Mr. Basswood keeps a lot of money in the shop? For instance, in that hidden room?”

“Very likely,” Nancy replied. A moment later she added in dismay, “We’ve locked ourselves out! And that book on painters and sculptors is inside! Now I can’t check to see if M De K or a Marco De K is mentioned in it!”

“Cheer up!” Bess urged. “Here come the police. Maybe they can open the door.”

Two officers arrived in a car and were given the details of what had happened and also the license number of the car in which the intruder had escaped.

“I’m Debbie Lynbrook and I work at the shop,” Nancy added.

George spoke up. “That man didn’t get anything. By the way, he forced his way into the Drew home in River Heights. The police are still looking for him.”

The girls gave a minute description of the man, then Nancy asked if the officers had any way of getting into the art shop. They shook their heads.

Before the officers stepped into their car, Nancy said, “We’re staying at the yacht club. If you pick up this man, will you please call Mr. Ayer and tell him. He can pass the message on to us.” The men promised to do so and left.

As the girls started for the taxi stand, Bess stopped abruptly. “Wait a minute!” she said. “I just had a horrible thought! Suppose that thug tells Mr. Basswood he saw us in the shop?”

Nancy frowned. “He may, but more likely he’ll be afraid to tell because Mr. Basswood would know he was poking around the shop.”

When the girls arrived at the yacht club, it was near lunchtime and Bess declared she was starving. “I could go for a great big steak and French fries and a chocolate fudge sundae,” she said.

George looked at her cousin sternly. “Eat all the steak you want but no French fries or sundaes. How about substituting a big bowl of spinach and a grapefruit?” Her cousin did not reply. She merely made a face at George.

Everyone was talking about the gas-main explosion and what damage it had done. They asked Debbie Lynbrook about the art shop and were sorry to hear that some statuary and paintings had been ruined.

Nancy suddenly thought of the statue on the front lawn of the yacht club. “Is it all right?” she asked the people at the next table.

“Yes,” a woman replied. “The earth tremor wasn’t felt that badly up here.”

Mr. Basswood did not telephone Nancy to come back so the three girls put on beach clothes and wandered down to the dock. Dick was there.

“Hi!” he said. “You’re just the people I was going to contact. Debbie and George, how about you and Ned and Burt entering the races this weekend?”

“It would be fun,” said George, “but we don’t know whether or not the boys are coming down.”

Nancy remarked. “If we enter, we’ll certainly need a little practice.”

Dick suggested that the girls go out now. Bess said she would stay ashore this time. She giggled. “I don’t want to get dumped into the water again.”

Nancy and George exchanged smiles. They knew that Bess preferred staying on land and talking to Dick, who was certainly a most attractive companion. They rowed out to Top Job and climbed in. Nancy set the sails while George handled the tiller. There was a stiff offshore breeze and Nancy began tacking.

For a while the girls were the only sailors on the bay. Then a craft larger than theirs headed toward them at racing speed. Nancy and George thought nothing about it until suddenly they realized that the skipper was not going to give them the right of way.

“Nancy, there’s no identification on his boat and look at him!” George cried out.

“He’s wearing a stocking mask!” Nancy exclaimed.

It was evident the stranger not only did not want to be recognized, but that his plan was to upset Top Job and injure the girls.

“Hard alee!” yelled Nancy and swung the boom. She avoided the other boat by inches. Nancy still ran with the wind toward the clubhouse dock. Twice her pursuer tacked across her bow but each time she zigzagged out of his way and got back on course. Finally he gave up and headed toward the ocean.

George heaved a sigh. “What do you make of that?”

Nancy admitted she was puzzled. “That skipper may be someone we’ve seen. I’m sure he’s part of the gang that would like to see us quit work on one or both of our cases.”

When the girls reached shore they told Bess and Dick what had happened. Dick said he would report the incident to the police at once. “That guy out there is a menace.”

“Agreed,” George replied.

Bess said that Dick had offered his car to the girls for the rest of the afternoon.

“Terrific,” said George.

Nancy smiled. “Thanks a lot, Dick. That’s great.”

The girls went to their bedroom to change into street clothes. As they opened the door, the telephone was ringing. Nancy scooped it up.

“Debbie Lynbrook?” a male voice asked. “Yes.”