010 Buried Secrets (13 page)

“True, but that’s a chance you’ll have to take,” the mayor said. “And I strongly urge you to take it.”

“And if I don’t?” Nancy asked.

The mayor chuckled. “Since you can’t see us, Miss Drew, I’ll describe the situation to you. My assistant is standing right beside me here, and he’s holding a hacksaw. Now, the cable to the dumbwaiter may be tough, but it’s old, and I’m sure a few good cuts will slice it right in two. I don’t really have to tell you what will happen then, do I?”

No, Nancy thought, you don’t. Once that cable goes, I’m gone. Wiping her forehead on her sleeve, Nancy took a deep breath. “No deal!” she shouted.

“All right, Miss Drew,” the mayor called back. “Have it your way.”

There was silence, and then the dumbwaiter and cable began swaying again. Without thinking, Nancy held on tight.

Wait a minute, she told herself. What are you doing? The guy’s hacking at this cable and you’re holding it as if it were a lifeline!

Well, she’d been wondering exactly how far
down she’d shinnied. Now was her chance to find out. If the drop was too far, it wouldn’t matter, anyway. But if she were fairly close to the kitchen, she just might make it.

The dumbwaiter swayed and thumped again, and Nancy knew it wouldn’t be long before that hacksaw did its job. If she wanted a chance, she was going to have to take it.
Now.

Without counting to three, without crossing her fingers, without holding her breath, Nancy loosened her hold on the cable and dropped into the darkness below.

W
HENEVER
N
ANCY DREAMED
she was falling, the fall always seemed endless. But this time she wasn’t dreaming, and it took only two seconds before her feet hit the floor so hard it made her teeth hurt. If that’s all that hurts, she thought, as she crumpled to her knees, I’m lucky.

Above her, she heard the dumbwaiter creak. Just seconds before it crashed to the bottom, Nancy had rolled out of the shaft and onto the black and white tiles of the kitchen floor.

Before she had a chance to catch her breath, she heard someone cross the room. Then she felt a hand on her arm. Gasping, she struggled to break
away. But when she realized whose hand was holding her, she stopped.

“Ned!” she cried, sagging against him. “I was never so glad to see anyone in my life!”

Ned’s arms were around her, helping her to stand. Nancy wanted to collapse with relief—but she couldn’t. Not yet.

Nancy stumbled to the kitchen phone and picked up the receiver. The line was dead, knocked out by the storm. The only way to let the police in on what was happening was to tell them in person.

“Come on,” Nancy said, taking Ned’s hand. “We’ve got to get out of here! Where’d you park your car?”

“Right near yours,” Ned said.

“Okay, let’s run for it!”

Together, Nancy and Ned burst out of Harrington House and started heading for the stone wall. They hadn’t gone more than a few yards when a loud crack filled the air. The storm was still going strong, but Nancy knew it wasn’t thunder she had just heard. It was a shotgun.

Glancing over her shoulder, Nancy saw the mayor’s sidekick taking aim again. Before he could shoot, the mayor ran up and pushed him away. Then the two of them took off together.

They’re going for their car, Nancy thought. And if they get us on that cliff road this time, we’ll never make it down.

“Who was that?” Ned asked, running beside her.

“If I have anything to say about it,” Nancy told him, gasping for breath, “that’ll be the
former
mayor of River Heights.”

Ned raised his eyebrows and whistled, but he kept on running.

The wind plastered Nancy’s wet hair to her face, and she had to keep peeling it away to see where she was going. She hoped the dogs didn’t decide to show up. The only thing she had to give them was the tape, and she wasn’t about to let go of that.

Finally they reached the wall and climbed over and into the woods, heading for the road and the cars. “We’ll take your car!” Nancy shouted. “I have a feeling mine may be missing another distributor cap!”

Ned jumped into his car and had the engine going before Nancy even opened her door. By the time she got in and closed it, the car was moving, its tires squealing as Ned did a three-point turn on the narrow road.

Ned had just straightened the car out and was about to pull away when he jammed on the brakes so hard that Nancy’s seat belt locked against her.

Looking out through the rain-washed windshield, Nancy saw a long gray limousine. She didn’t recognize the driver, who had jumped out and was gesturing wildly for them to move. But she did recognize the passenger who stuck his head out the window. It was Todd Harrington.

“What’s the problem?” Todd asked, walking over to Ned’s car.

“The police!” Nancy told him. “We have to get to the police. You’ve got to move your car!”

“I have a better idea,” Todd said, gesturing for them to come with him.

As Nancy and Ned slid into the limousine next to two members of his campaign staff, Todd pushed a button on the back of the seat. A panel slid down. Inside was a telephone. “Why don’t you call them?” Todd suggested with a smile.

Laughing in relief, Nancy punched the number. When Mayor Abbott’s car pulled up behind Ned’s, a police car was already on the way, its siren screaming as it raced up the cliff road.

• • •

“Well, congratulations, Nancy,” Brenda Carlton said over the phone a couple of days later. “You won.”

“You mean I haven’t lost my touch?” Nancy asked jokingly.

“Well, I don’t know about that. You have to admit you were awfully lucky.”

“So were you,” Nancy said, deciding not to argue. “After all, you found Neil Gray.”

“That wasn’t luck!”

“You mean it was detective work?”

“Oh, all right,” Brenda grumbled. “My father knew somebody who knew somebody who knew Neil Gray. That’s how I found him.” She sighed. “Anyway, now he’s safely in jail. I heard his lawyer is going to try for a plea of temporary insanity, but I don’t really know. Well, anyway, since I got you into this little detective contest, I thought I ought to congratulate you for winning it.”

You mean your father told you to, Nancy thought.

“But don’t get too conceited about it,” Brenda warned. “I learned a lot on this case. Next time, you’ll have a real battle on your hands.”

Next time? Nancy wondered after Brenda had hung up. Another detective duel with Brenda Carlton? Never.

Even though Nancy knew she’d have another case, she was sure there’d never be another one like this. Spread out in front of her on the kitchen table were newspapers from the past two days,
each one filled with stories about the Harrington case.

Mayor Abbott and his assistant were both in jail, awaiting their trials. Todd was up to his ears in interviews about his father and Mayor Abbott, but he was being charmingly honest about the whole thing, and Nancy figured most people wouldn’t blame him for what his father had been.

The hardest part had been telling Hannah about Charles Ogden. Nancy had dreaded it, but when she finally told her, Hannah was very calm. “I’m lucky, in a way,” she’d said. “If things had worked out and I’d married Charlie, I probably would have had a miserable life. I would never have met my husband—or come to work for your family.” She smiled at Nancy. “And look at the wonderful life I’ve had.”

Nancy smiled, too, remembering what Hannah had said. Then, glancing at her watch, she frowned. She had to go. Ned wanted her to meet him in the park by the river. It was time they had that talk, he’d said.

Before going, Nancy stopped in front of the hall mirror. Her outfit—a long flowered skirt and a green scoop-neck cotton sweater—was one of her favorites. Her hair smelled lemony and her fingernails were freshly polished. She smiled and
nodded at her reflection. “If you’re going to get dumped,” she told herself, “at least you can look good.”

Ned was waiting for her when she got to the park. When he saw her, he got up from the bench and walked toward her, smiling and brushing his brown hair back. “Hi,” he said, taking her hand. “You look terrific.”

“Thanks.” Nancy smiled nervously and then decided to get it over with. “Well? What’s this serious talk about?”

“Us.” Still holding her hand, Ned led her to a bench, and they sat down.

“I figured that,” Nancy said. “The other night, right before Hannah came running out of the house, you started to say something. You said, ‘This is really hard…’ Why don’t you finish the sentence now?”

“I remember,” Ned said. “I’ve been thinking about us all the time I’ve been home. At first, I just wasn’t sure whether we ought to stay together. But the more I saw you, the more I realized I wanted to be with you. And it was hard, because you were so busy with the case and everything. I even worried about asking you out—I didn’t want it to seem as though I was trying to take you away from your job.”

“It’s probably always going to be that way, Ned,” Nancy told him.

“I know, and that’s okay,” Ned said. “It was just hard, because all I wanted to do was put my arms around you. That’s still all I want to do.”

Sighing in relief, Nancy grinned at him. “So who’s stopping you now?” she asked.

Grinning back, Ned wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly.

“By the way,” Nancy whispered, “I never did ask you why you came to Harrington House that day.”

Ned laughed softly. “I came to tell you that I love you,” he said.

Just before they kissed, Nancy thought that maybe she hadn’t lost
this
touch, either.