010 Buried Secrets (10 page)

M
OVE
! N
ANCY TOLD
herself. Her body felt as if it were under water, but somehow she managed to leap forward, grazing her shoulder on the corner of the building.

She fell hard, scraping her hands on the rough pavement. The stone crashed onto the sidewalk behind her, breaking into pieces as if it were an eggshell. It landed where Nancy had been standing only seconds before. If it had hit her, she knew she would have been killed instantly.

I’ll have to talk to Mayor Abbott, Nancy thought as she got shakily to her feet. This part of town is coming apart at the seams! But as she gently brushed off her scratched palms, she
remembered the person she’d thought she had seen. Maybe it wasn’t an accident. Maybe it was more of the same—someone trying to scare her off. And if it was, then things had just become very serious.

Stepping out into the middle of the street, Nancy craned her neck, trying to see if she could spot anyone up on the roof. All she saw was the gap where the stone decoration had been.

“Why are you here? I told you to meet me at the bus stop.” Brenda Carlton’s voice grated on Nancy.

Dressed in tight black pants and an oversize blouse, with a gold chain belt around her hips, Brenda strode impatiently down the street. But Nancy didn’t look at her. She was running to the fire escape that ran down the side of the building. “You may have solved this case, Brenda,” she said, “and I know you can’t wait to gloat about it, but we have something more important to do first.”

“We do? What?”

Nancy grabbed the rusted bottom rung and swung herself up. “Come on,” she called back to Brenda. “We have to hurry!”

Nancy was wearing a soft purple running outfit, which made it easy for her to climb. But Brenda’s clothes weren’t good for much but sitting and standing. Sighing loudly, she heaved herself
clumsily onto the fire escape steps. The thin high heel on one of her shoes immediately caught on the step and broke off. By this time, Nancy was halfway up the side of the building.

“Do you mind telling me what we’re doing?” Brenda screeched, pulling off her shoe and stamping her bare foot.

“We’re trying to find whoever just tried to kill me!” Nancy shouted back. “Hurry!”

The rest of the way up, Nancy could hear Brenda shrieking at her, but there was no time to answer. It might not be too late, she thought. The stone had fallen only a couple of minutes before.

The roof of the building was covered with black tarlike stuff that felt soft and gooey underfoot. In the middle of it was a high square shed with a door on one side. Except for that door, and a couple of metal bubbles that Nancy figured were for ventilation, the roof was empty. The roof of the next building was too far away to jump to safely, and the only way off the roof was the fire escape.

Cautiously, Nancy crept to the door that led into the building. She moved silently around one corner, then the next, and the next, ready to jump on anyone who might be hiding. No one was there. Quietly she tested the handle. It turned easily, and Nancy found herself staring down a
steep stairway that led to the top floor of the building.

The building was four stories high, Nancy remembered. And her stone pusher could be hiding on any one of them. Her heart pounding, she put one foot on the top step and was peering down into the shadowy stairwell when she heard a noise behind her.

Nancy whirled around to see Brenda climbing clumsily off the fire escape and onto the tarry roof. Brenda’s mouth was open, ready to complain again, but Nancy quickly put a finger to her lips and motioned her over.

Carrying her broken shoe, Brenda limped to the doorway. “I wish—”

“Ssh!” Nancy hissed. “Later! Now take off that other shoe and come on!”

Together Nancy and Brenda made their way down the first flight of stairs to the door leading into the fourth floor. It was locked. So was the door on the third floor. Finally, on the second floor, the door opened.

“Why didn’t you just break into those other doors?” Brenda whispered.

“Because I figured the guy who wanted to kill me didn’t have time to do it himself,” Nancy whispered back. “He just tried to bash my head
in, so he’s not going to stand around picking locks. He wants an easy way out.”

Brenda looked terrified. “So you think he might still be hiding in here? Why wouldn’t he just take these stairs to the outside?”

“Because these will only go into the basement, and he wouldn’t be able to get out. He had to go onto a floor and then take the inside stairs to the first floor, or he could have then taken the fire escape back down after we were off it. I am hoping that we’ll surprise him and that he won’t have left yet.”

Nancy tiptoed quietly through the long hallway that was lined with doors. They must have been offices once, but she couldn’t imagine anyone doing business there now. The hall was littered with trash, the tiles were broken, and cobwebs hung from the ceilings.

“You go that way around that corner and try doors,” she told Brenda. “If one of the doors opens, don’t go in. Just come get me.”

Brenda put her hand nervously on a doorknob. It wouldn’t turn. Satisfied that Brenda was at least going to try, Nancy was going around the corner when she heard Brenda scream.

Her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with terror, Brenda stood in an open doorway. “I saw it!” she shrieked. “A rat! A huge, disgusting rat!”

With a sigh Nancy stepped into the room. It was small, with broken chairs and a battered desk. The floor was covered with a film of dust, and in the dust was a clear set of footprints leading to an open window. Through the window, Nancy could see the fire escape.

He’s gone, she thought, looking down at the deserted street. And the only clue he left behind was his big, fat footprints. Checking the prints again, she saw that they really were big. They belonged to a tall man, probably, just like the one in the black car and the one in John Harrington’s office—the one who wanted to do more than scare her.

“Nancy?” Brenda said nervously.

“It’s okay,” Nancy said, going into the hallway. “The rat’s gone. Both of them. Come on, let’s get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”

Back on the street, Nancy finally remembered why Brenda had asked her there. “Okay, Brenda,” she said. “I have to admit it’ll make me jealous, but if you really have solved the case, at least it’ll be over. So tell me.”

“Well.” Brenda smiled importantly. “It just so happens that I found Neil Gray.”

Nancy’s mouth dropped open. “And he confessed to killing John Harrington?”

“Not yet,” Brenda told her. “But I’m sure he
will once the police take him into custody. What he
did
confess was that he took that shot at Todd the other day.”

“Where is he?” Nancy asked.

“Oh, no!
I
found him, and he’s mine,” Brenda said. “But I will tell you this—he’s changed his name, and he’s become almost a hermit, living alone and brooding about the Harringtons. He absolutely despises them,” she went on. “He said that when he found out about Todd’s campaign, he didn’t know what came over him. It was as though all the awful stuff that’s been haunting him had come alive again! Isn’t that fantastic?”

Nancy nodded. “But he didn’t admit to killing Todd’s father?”

“No, he just told the same old story—that his appointment had been canceled and he went home without ever seeing John Harrington. But as I said, once the police get him, I bet he’ll talk!”

Nancy wasn’t so sure, but she didn’t want to argue. “Is he tall?” she asked, suddenly wondering if Neil Gray and the tall, skinny man with the shotgun were the same person.

“Six feet, at least!”

Very slowly then Nancy asked her to describe the man. After hearing Brenda’s description, Nancy knew her tall, skinny man was not Neil Gray. She had been hoping that he had been
following her and also that he was the killer of John Harrington.

If he wasn’t Gray, she thought, then who was he? Charles Ogden? No, Ogden was only about five feet five. Therefore, the skinny man had to be a hired accomplice, Nancy reasoned, and anyone could have hired him. She was no further along than she had been, except that now she knew that Neil Gray was not following her.

Nancy started to think more about the man who had pushed the stone over. How had he known to wait for her on the roof of that particular building that morning? She hadn’t been followed, she was sure of that. In spite of the sun, Nancy shivered. How had he known?

A
S SHE FOLLOWED
Brenda’s flashy red car out of the run-down section of town a few minutes later, Nancy had an overwhelming urge to keep on following her. After all—unbelievable as it seemed—Brenda had found Neil Gray. And Nancy would have given almost anything to talk to the man. She knew she could find out more from him than Brenda had.

Unfortunately, Brenda turned down the street the newspaper office was on, and Nancy had no choice but to keep on driving.

All right, admit it, she told herself as she headed home, you’re jealous. Brenda found Neil
Gray and you didn’t. She beat you on that one, and you don’t like it one bit.

But had Brenda beaten Nancy on the really important one? Had Neil Gray killed John Harrington?

He hated the Harringtons, Nancy thought; he hadn’t bothered to keep that a secret. And he’d admitted shooting at Todd, which hardly helped his case any. Somehow, though, Nancy had trouble believing that a man who was so honest about the way he felt would bother hiding what he’d done—even if what he’d done was murder. Neil Gray was so down on the Harringtons that he probably would have bragged about killing one of them. And it wasn’t just jealousy that made her want to solve this case. It was not knowing what had happened that was driving her crazy.

By the time Nancy got home, the morning sun had been covered by a blanket of gray clouds, and a light rain was falling. After she let herself in through the back door of the house, she grabbed an apple from the kitchen table and headed for her room. The phone rang and she stopped to pick it up in the den.

“Hi,” Ned said.

Nancy’s mood suddenly turned gray, too. Was Ned going to tell her everything was over between
them? That was all she needed. “Hi,” she answered. She almost wished she’d missed his call.

“How’s everything?” he asked. “The house back together again?”

“Just about.” The connection was still lousy, and Nancy reminded herself to complain to the phone company. Then, hoping to keep Ned from saying whatever he wanted to say, she started talking fast, telling him about Brenda and Neil Gray and the stone that had just missed crushing her skull.

“This is getting serious,” Ned said.

“Everyone keeps telling me that, and I’m beginning to believe it.”

“It’s true,” Ned told her. “Listen, Nancy, about last night. I wanted to—”

“You know what I think I’m going to do?” Nancy said, interrupting. “I think I’ll go back to Harrington House. There’s something I want to check out, and Todd’s going to be back soon, so I might not have another chance.” Anything, she thought. Anything to keep Ned from giving her bad news.

“Okay,” Ned said doubtfully. “But be careful, Nancy. I mean it. You don’t know what’s going on, and you could get hurt.”

“You’re right,” Nancy agreed. At least he still
cares about whether or not I get hurt, she thought. “But don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”

“Call me when you get back,” Ned suggested. “I’d like to know what you find out, and besides, I really want to talk to you.”

Nancy wasn’t so sure she really wanted to talk to him, but she agreed to call when she got back. Still eating the apple, she went back to the kitchen, grabbed a couple of slices of ham from the refrigerator, got back in the Mustang, and headed for Harrington House. She’d used it as an excuse to put Ned off, and she still wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but anything was better than sitting at home.

After she parked in the narrow turnaround, Nancy got out and followed the wall to the broken spot. As soon as she touched down on the other side, the dogs came tearing toward her. But this time she was prepared. “Here, you moochers,” she called, tossing the ham at them. Satisfied, the dogs ignored her as she sprinted toward the mansion.