039 The Suspect Next Door (9 page)

Nikki sat down on the sofa. She was just starting to get her breath back and become calm enough to speak.

“Oh, Nikki,” Robin moaned, touching her friend’s hair lightly. “Are you hurt?”

“No, not really,” Nikki answered weakly.

“Are you sure?” Lacey demanded. There was fire in her eyes, and her lips were pressed together.

Nikki shook her head. “Honestly, I’m okay. It’s just, oh, it was so horrible.” Nikki burst out in sobs again.

Nancy knelt in front of her and put a comforting hand on her arm. “Nikki,” she said softly. “You’ve got to tell us what happened. From the beginning.”

“Okay,” said Nikki with a nod and brushed away her tears. “Well, Dan showed up here at the party, you know that. I was in total shock when I saw him.”

“Me, too!” Lacey exclaimed. “What nerve he’s got!”

“Shhh!” Robin said. “Let Nikki tell us what happened.”

“Well, he said he wanted to talk to me, and what could I say? Everyone was staring at us. I think most of them were hoping I’d throw a fit and humiliate him in public, but I would never do that to Dan. Even if he’s not my boyfriend, I still care about him.”

Nikki was trembling. Nancy quickly took off her sweater and threw it over her friend’s shoulders. “Then what happened?” she asked gently.

“Well, we went out into the backyard, and it was okay. Really. He was much more reasonable than I’d seen him in a long time. He said he realized he was acting pretty crazed lately, and he was sorry for upsetting me and all.”

“Then what happened?” Lacey prodded.

Nikki smiled weakly at her friend. “Then I told him again that it was definitely over. That we could be friends, from a distance, but that it could never be the way it had been.”

“He must have hated hearing that,” Robin murmured.

“Well, he didn’t argue,” Nikki replied. “He just nodded, and I thought maybe this time I’d really gotten through to him. I thought maybe everything was going to be all right.”

“Where were you at this point?” Nancy asked. “Were you still here at the party?”

“Yes,” Nikki answered. “We were out back under a big tree, in the dark. Dan was sort of staring out into the darkness. He didn’t say
much. Then, all of a sudden, he asked me to go for a ride with him. To talk some more, he said.”

“And you agreed?” Lacey asked, a shocked expression on her face.

“Yes, I did,” Nikki said, pausing for a moment. “Could I have a glass of water?” she asked. “My throat feels kind of dry.”

“I’ll get it.” Robin leapt up and went to the door. When she opened it, Nancy could see a bunch of kids huddled around it, whispering furiously. The whispering stopped the second Robin looked outside. “Somebody bring a glass of water,” she announced.

“And a wet washcloth, too,” Nancy called out.

Robin closed the door and came back to the sofa. “Why can’t people mind their own stupid business,” she groaned.

“Yeah, it didn’t take them long, did it?” Lacey said with a scowl. “Between Brittany and Jeremy, they could put out a real gossip rag. Oh. Sorry, Nikki.” Lacey suddenly realized the effect her words must have had on her friend.

Nikki’s face was a mask of fear. “Oh, no,” she gasped. “They’ll take me apart, won’t they? Everybody is going to be talking about me now.” Her red-rimmed eyes grew sad and distant.

The door opened, and Jay handed the water and washcloth to Robin. The crowd was still out there, still whispering.

“Go on with the story, Nikki,” Nancy instructed
her. “You were saying he asked you to go for a drive—”

Nikki coughed, took a long drink, and then went on. “I asked him why he wanted to go for a ride, and he kept saying there was something he had to do. He wouldn’t say what. I figured he had an errand to run or something. But he was acting awfully nervous again.”

“You must have been getting scared by now,” Lacey said, her eyes wide.

“Not until he pulled off the road into the woods,” Nikki said.

“Where were you by now?” Nancy asked.

Nikki shook her head. “I wasn’t really watching the road, but I think we were near the country club. Dan turned off the car, and I wondered what I’d done, you know?” Nikki took a deep breath. “Then he took out that envelope again,” she said, staring at the far wall.

“The same one he asked you to take before?” Nancy asked.

Nikki looked at Nancy and nodded. “Same one. He was shaking, and his eyes—you should have seen his eyes—they were wild. It was like we had never had that talk in Jeremy’s backyard.” Nikki had started to tremble all over.

“Did you take it?” Robin wanted to know.

“No, I didn’t want to, but he tried to stuff it into my purse.”

The phone next to the sofa rang, startling them
all. Nikki gave a little shriek and jumped up. Then somebody picked up the call in another room, and the phone was quiet.

“Go on, Nikki,” Nancy prompted her.

“I tried to run, but he grabbed me,” Nikki said. “He was trying to keep me there. I got really scared and I scratched him, I think, but finally I got away. I left my purse there. The navy blue one. He’s still got it, I guess.

“I kept running and running, and I fell into some thorns. You can see what a mess I am. Anyway, I found the road finally, and I walked all the way here. I guess that’s everything.”

The door opened. “Oh, Lacey,” Brittany called out, poking her head in the door. “That was your mother on the phone. She wants her little baby to come home. It’s eleven-fifteen, you know. Time for beddie-bye.”

Lacey reddened with rage at the roar of laughter which followed. “I scratched my mom’s car last month,” she explained, embarrassed. “Now I’ve got this dumb curfew.”

“We might as well all leave,” Nancy said. She turned to Nikki. “Do you feel well enough to go?”

Nikki nodded her head slowly. “I think so.”

“Come on, then. I’ll drive you home. All of you. This party’s over for us.”

The four girls walked out of the study through the curious crowd. Nikki kept her head down
until they were safely out of the house, in Nancy’s car, and out of the driveway.

“Whew!” Lacey sighed in relief as she flicked her red braid over her shoulder. “That was awful. Are you okay, Nikki?”

“I’m okay,” Nikki answered, with a shudder. “But I wish Brittany hadn’t been there tonight.”

“I know. She’s such a jerk,” Robin muttered, still hot with fury.

Nancy looked over at Nikki. If Brittany had had such a field day with Lacey’s curfew, what would she do with Nikki’s little adventure?

Nancy dropped Robin and Lacey off, then headed for home. “Nikki,” she said as they pulled onto their block, “did anything else happen out there when you were with Dan? Anything you forgot to tell us?” Nancy wanted to have it out with Dan Taylor, and she needed to know every detail.

Nikki looked at Nancy in surprise. “No. Why do you ask?” she asked, cocking her head to one side. “Don’t you trust me?”

“Of course I trust you,” Nancy told her. “I just wanted to make sure I was totally filled in, that’s all. Listen, you get some rest, and put yourself back together. I’ll come over for breakfast in the morning.”

Nikki smiled with relief. “Great. Nancy, you’ve been wonderful to me. You’ve been a true friend, and I really appreciate it. I doubt I’m
going to hear from Dan again. I think it’s finally all over, thank goodness.”

“See you in the morning, Nikki,” Nancy said as she pulled up in front of the Masterses’ home.

“Aren’t you going to park?”

“No, I have a few things I want to check out first,” Nancy told her.

Nikki looked curious but seemed to think better of asking too much. “Okay, Nancy. See you tomorrow.”

After Nikki got out of the car, Nancy drove off. She wanted to drive past the country club. Maybe Dan was still hanging out near there. If he wasn’t, she could still get a look at the area. She’d do some hunting to try to find Nikki’s purse, and that envelope Dan had been trying to give her.

About a hundred yards from the club entrance there was a small dirt road leading off the highway. Nancy turned down it, her high beams bouncing off the dense forest growth.

As Nancy drove deeper into the woods, a light caught her eye. A flashing red light. And then another. Coming around a bend, she saw two police cars and an ambulance.

Her heart pounding, she pulled up and got out of the car. She ran over to the nearest police officer. “What’s happened?” she asked. “What’s going on?”

The policeman turned and shone his flashlight on her. It was Officer Nolan, whom she’d known for years. “Oh, hi, Nancy,” he said, in a quiet
voice. “I’m afraid it’s a murder and a pretty brutal one, too. That’s the guy’s car.”

Nancy’s heart leapt into her throat when the policeman turned and flashed his light along the car. Nancy swallowed hard. The car he was pointing to was Dan Taylor’s!

S
UDDENLY DIZZY,
Nancy leaned back against her Mustang. Distant sirens felt as if they were sounding right in her head, and the flashers wound around crazily in their own wild rhythm. Nancy saw two orderlies loading a stretcher into the ambulance. She looked up but felt too weak to do anything at all.

“I’ll go tell the chief you’re here,” Nolan said, heading off in the direction of the police cars. Nancy tried to shake it off, but a horrible thought kept pounding in her head—I should have seen this coming.

The signs had been there: Dan’s growing desperation, the way he kept after Nikki, the way he
tried to give her that envelope, the beating he got from Max Hudson. Obviously, Dan had been in greater and greater danger.

He was dead now, Nancy thought with a shudder. And whatever he knew was gone, too.

“Well, if it isn’t Nancy Drew!” The voice startled Nancy and brought her back to reality. Looking up, she saw Brenda Carlton from
Today’s Times,
one of River Heights’s newspapers. Brenda was not one of Nancy’s favorite people. She had a good nose for a story, but she always featured its most sensational elements.

“Hello, Brenda,” Nancy said wearily.

“So? What are you doing here? Do you know something I don’t know but should?” Brenda asked.

“Oh, I just sort of stumbled into this,” Nancy said. The excuse sounded lame even to her.

“Right. And I’m the queen of Sheba. Come on, Drew, you know I’m going to find out, with you or without you. So what’s your angle on Dan Taylor? He was dating your neighbor Nikki Masters, wasn’t he? I heard she gave him a real hard time.”

Nancy shuddered. “Brenda, why don’t you ever cover
real
news?”

“Is that a hint?” Brenda said with a sneer. “Oh, I get it. All right, I’ll find out some other way. But just remember, when you need help from me, you can count on zilch.”

Sulking, Brenda turned away from Nancy and
moved off to question a police officer. When she saw Chief McGinnis walking up to Nancy, however, she turned in her tracks. She obviously wanted to be within earshot.

“Hello, Nancy,” the chief said, shooting her a grim smile. “Say, you don’t look so good. You know this Taylor guy?”

“Not well,” Nancy replied sadly. “He had a bad reputation. But I don’t think he was a bad kid, Chief—just mixed up. Maybe he got in with the wrong crowd.”

Brenda was standing nearby, scribbling furiously. Nancy detected an evil little grin on that self-satisfied face of hers.

“Sounds like you know quite a bit,” the chief said, arching his eyebrows. “What do you say we go back to the station together and er”—he looked over at Brenda—“talk about it in private? I’m about done here.”

“I’ve got my car,” Nancy offered. “Want to ride with me?”

“Fine,” nodded the chief.

“But give me the tour first, okay?”

Chief McGinnis led Nancy over to Dan’s car. Next to it was an outline of the body. Judging from the evidence, the police had found Dan on the ground by the driver’s side of the car.

“He was hit on the forehead with a rock,” the chief explained. “He must have been putting his
arm up to ward off the blow, because his watch got smashed. Convenient, anyway, because that gives us an exact time of death: ten-fourteen p.m.”

Ten-fourteen? Nikki had been with Dan at 10:14!

“We think we know the killer,” McGinnis added. “She left a dark blue bag behind.”

Nancy’s heart sank even farther. This couldn’t be happening! Then it hit her—the envelope! It would be inside the purse. “Could I see it?” Nancy asked.

“It’s over at headquarters. When we get there, I’ll have them take it out of evidence for you.” Chief McGinnis was being friendly as always, but Nancy couldn’t possibly manage a smile.

The handbag had to be Nikki’s. In addition to the time on Dan’s watch, the purse made for some pretty serious evidence.

Nancy shivered. She’d just been with Nikki, and Nikki hadn’t acted at all like a girl who’d just killed her boyfriend.

And yet, Nancy remembered, Nikki had once told Dan that she’d kill him. She couldn’t have really meant it. Or could she?

“I think I know the girl you mean, Chief,” Nancy told the officer. “And she’s not a killer.”

“Well, we’ll see about that,” he replied.

Nancy took a deep breath and blew it out.
“Okay, let’s go,” she said huskily. “I’ve seen enough.”