(#30) The Clue of the Velvet Mask (8 page)

“Oh, we use a special indelible ink that lasts forever,” Linda replied.

“Could you let me borrow a bottle of it?”

“Why, I guess so. How soon do you want it, Nancy?”

“Right away if possible.”

“Wait here and I’ll see if I can slip one out of the supply room,” Linda said.

Ten minutes later she returned with the bottle of ink tucked in an office envelope. As she gave it to Nancy, Peter Tombar entered the drugstore.

He could not possibly have known what the fat envelope contained, because Nancy thrust it quickly into her handbag. Nevertheless, he regarded the two girls intently, then walked over to the soda counter.

“Miss Seeley, you are five minutes over your lunch hour,” he said.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Tombar. I—I was just leaving.”

“Leaving? I thought you were just coming. Didn’t you hand—?”

“Are you eating here?” Nancy broke in.

Tombar glared at her but did not reply. Linda took advantage of the moment to escape.

Nancy regretted the meeting with Tombar. He could not possibly know what Linda had given her, but he might be suspicious.

No sooner had Tombar left the drugstore than Nancy returned to the laboratory. She gave the chemist the bottle of ink for analysis and waited for his report.

Finally it came. She was informed that the fluid was identical to the one used to write the numbers on the lining of the hooded mask.

“What a clue!” Nancy thought, and hurried from the laboratory to return the bottle to Linda.

Nancy talked with Linda for a few minutes. Then, just as she managed to slip her the envelope with the bottle in it, Tombar entered from a back room. He stopped short when he saw the two girls.

“Miss Seeley,” he said coldly, “I suggest that you return to the work you left. I will help Miss Drew.”

“Never mind,” Nancy said quickly. “I’m just going!” She sailed out cheerfully, but her heart was thumping uncomfortably. Had the man seen the bottle change hands?

On Sunday she told her father about the ink clue. “Now I’m positive someone at Lightner’s is a member of the gang,” Nancy said. “If I could only work there a few days, I could watch everyone.”

“Couldn’t you help Linda with the office work? I’m sure Mr. Lightner would give his permission.”

Nancy’s father called the man’s home. After a brief conversation he said good-by. “It’s all settled,” Mr. Drew reported. “Mr. Lightner was most agreeable to the suggestion.”

Nancy appeared punctually at the Lightner Entertainment Company at nine o’clock Monday morning. She noted, with some amusement, Tombar’s reaction to her arrival. After his first unfriendly stare, he pointedly ignored Nancy.

Nancy spent an uneventful morning sorting letters and rearranging files. Whenever she was about to seize an opportunity to slip into the storerooms to look for clues, Tombar would suddenly appear again.

“He may not be speaking to me, but he’s surely keeping an eye on my whereabouts,” Nancy thought. “I’ll hold off until lunchtime. While he’s out, I can do some looking around.”

But when twelve o’clock came, the assistant manager did not leave, nor did he at one. To Nancy’s dismay, she observed him eating sandwiches right at his desk.

“Evidently he doesn’t intend to budge from here today,” Nancy said to herself.

This proved to be true. By late afternoon Nancy was weary from hunger. Her eyes ached from the tedious filing, and she was discouraged.

When five o’clock came, Nancy left the Lightner offices without seeing Linda. Right after supper, however, Nancy received an urgent telephone call from the girl.

“It’s happened!” she announced dramatically. “And I don’t know what to do!”

“Another robbery?” Nancy gasped.

“No, not that. I’ve been discharged!”

CHAPTER X

A New Ruse

LINDA poured out the story of her dismissal by Mr. Tombar, who had given her no chance to defend herself.

“He made an inventory check late Saturday. Just a single little bottle of ink that was opened without his permission! But did he ever make a fuss! He suspected me right away.”

“You didn’t tell him you lent me the ink?”

“No, but from the way he questioned me I think he guessed it. Anyway, he made me admit that I had taken the bottle from the shelf. I offered to pay for a full one, but he wouldn’t even listen. He just told me I was through.”

“Now, Linda, don’t feel too bad,” Nancy comforted her. “Take it easy for a few days and I’ll help you get your job back or find another—a better one where there will be no Mr. Tombar.”

“Oh, Nancy, you’re so kind!” Linda exclaimed and thanked her.

Though Nancy sounded confident, she was troubled. Now that Linda had been discharged there would be no source of information at the entertainment company. To make matters worse, Mr. Lightner himself called in a few minutes to say that affairs at the office were a bit confused at the moment and perhaps Nancy had better not return to work there since Linda was gone.

“I’m sorry,” Nancy said. “But it will be all right if I drop in, won’t it? I’d like to talk to you about several things.”

“Any time.”

After she had hung up, Nancy sat lost in thought. No mystery she had ever tried to solve had baffled her more. In addition, George Fayne had not recovered from her frightening experience.

“I feel simply terrible about it,” Nancy told Hannah Gruen. “George is weak and has no appetite. But what’s even worse, she mopes around talking about the party thieves and every time I see her she begs me to give up the case.”

“Those criminals probably threatened her,” Hannah suggested.

Nancy nodded. “It would explain her pleas to me to drop the case,” Nancy conceded.

The following morning she decided to see Mr. Lightner about Linda. As Nancy drove downtown her thoughts went to George again.

“Something must be done about her!” Nancy decided as she parked in front of the entertainment company building. “If I solve the mystery, that may do it.”

She went at once to Mr. Lightner’s office. He listened politely to her request that he take Linda back but shook his head.

“Usually I leave employment matters in that department entirely to Mr. Tombar,” he said. “If he discharged Linda, there must have been a good reason.”

“It was really my fault, Mr. Lightner,” said Nancy, and explained about asking Linda to borrow the ink bottle. “If she hadn’t been trying to help me, it never would have happened.”

“That does change the picture somewhat,” the company president admitted. “But perhaps Mr. Tombar had other reasons as well. After all, the girl has been under suspicion.”

“Unjustly so, I’m sure, Mr. Lightner. She wasn’t even at that musicale where there was a robbery.”

“I know,” Mr. Lightner said. “But there were other parties and certain thefts right here which raised doubts as to her honesty.”

“If I could prove she’s innocent, would you take Linda back?” Nancy asked.

“Why—uh—yes. Of course, that is, with Mr. Tombar’s okay.”

Nancy realized that Linda would need a reference to secure a new job. She could not get one from her ex-employer.

Nancy thought quickly. She could only help Linda by catching the thieves! Nancy must get an invitation to the affair on June twenty-sixth.

“Mr. Lightner,” she said, “you know, of course, that I’ve been trying to help Dad solve the mystery of the party thieves.”

The man smiled. “Yes, he told me even I was under suspicion for a time!”

“May I go to the lecture at the Claytons’?” Nancy asked.

He readily gave his consent, telling her to meet him there at seven-thirty Wednesday evening.

“I’m taking personal charge,” he informed her. “I’ve decided it’s high time I did a little investigating of my own.”

“Then Mr. Tombar won’t be there?”

“No,” Mr. Lightner replied. “He’s in a huff about it, too. But that’s beside the point.”

Further conversation revealed that Peter Tombar was annoyed also because Mr. Lightner had asked him not to take such long lunch hours.

Nancy smiled. “The man must have been driving out into the country a good deal,” she thought. “Well, if he doesn’t do that any more, another clue is washed out.”

Speaking again of the lecture, she suggested that as a precautionary measure all the cards of admission be marked with a special swirl. Then no uninvited person could possibly slip in without being detected. Mr. Lightner immediately agreed to Nancy’s proposal.

“I have the list here, ready for addressing,” he told her. “Shall we mark them now? I’ll have a messenger deliver them this evening.”

The work was done quickly. Each card was marked on the reverse side.

“It’s essential that we tell no one what we’ve done,” Nancy advised Mr. Lightner. “Not even your secretary or Mr. Tombar.”

“Surely both of them can be trusted.”

“Nevertheless, let’s keep this as our own secret.”

“Very well,” Mr. Lightner said. “I’ll personally check every invitation at the door.”

After lunch Nancy went to Mr. Johnson’s office to inquire what progress had been made in recalling the charge plates. She learned that they were coming in very slowly. He said that he did not dare push the matter, lest any dishonest employee get an inkling of what lay behind the scheme.

“I’ll let you know if anything turns up,” the credit manager promised.

Nancy had a long talk with her father. Mr. Drew said he had decided to take the Lightner case, thanks to his daughter’s fine sleuthing. But the company owner refused to believe that any of his present employees were dishonest.

“His clients are getting a bit impatient and want to start their suits,” Mr. Drew revealed, “but we’re stalling for time.”

“If I could only discover something worth while!” Nancy sighed.

She spent the rest of the day with George, who had sent for her. The listless girl was in no better spirits and Nancy missed her friend’s help in sleuthing. All she could do was humor George.

Bess was out of town, leaving Nancy with a lonesome feeling.

“But I mustn’t give up, even for a second,” she determined.

The distraught George again begged Nancy to give up the case. “You—you simply must stop working on it,” she pleaded.

“George, whatever has happened to you?” Nancy asked. “This case is no different from others I’ve worked on.”

“It’s much more dangerous. Nancy, please—”

The young sleuth patted George’s hand. “I’ll be careful, really I will,” she promised. “Tomorrow I’m going to a perfectly safe highbrow lecture!”

The next evening Nancy arrived at the Clayton home early. To her chagrin she found Tombar there.

“It wasn’t necessary for him to be here,” Mr. Lightner told Nancy. “But he insisted I might run into difficulty handling some of the details I wasn’t used to.”

Nancy smiled and made no comment. It was obvious to her that Tombar wanted to be there! Making a great show of directing the placement of chairs, he bustled about, growling orders at everyone.

Mr. Lightner had posted himself at the front door to inspect each card that was presented. Nancy stood close by to scrutinize the arriving guests. Everyone seemed straightforward-looking and above suspicion.

“So far so good,” Mr. Lightner presently whispered to Nancy. “At least two-thirds of the cards are in. All are authentic.”

Nancy had observed a man loitering outdoors near the parking lot. She called Mr. Lightner’s attention to him.

“Oh, don’t worry about him. He’s a private detective I employed. After the program starts, he’ll move inside and help keep an eye on everyone.”

In a few minutes the lecture began. Not all the cards had been turned in, so Mr. Lightner remained at the front door to meet latecomers.

“It looks as if the party thieves aren’t going to show up,” Nancy remarked. “Just to be sure no one is prowling about the garden, I’ll walk around outside.”

She circled the house, noting that all the windows on the first floor were very high above the ground. It would be difficult to climb in and dangerous to drop from any of them!

In her tour Nancy presently came to the parking area and wandered among the cars. Approaching a long black sedan, she was startled to see a man lying on the ground, almost under the front wheels.

“Oh,” she thought, “he’s ill!”

Kneeling, she realized that he was unconscious. As wild ideas raced through Nancy’s mind, she received a further shock. All the lights in the Clayton house suddenly went out!

CHAPTER XI

Loot for Sale

NANCY felt it would be cruel to leave the man who lay unconscious on the ground. Yet she wanted to return to the suddenly darkened house. She was sure another robbery was in progress!

As Nancy leaned over the stranger, she noticed a peculiar sweet-smelling odor on his clothing. Instantly she thought of George’s experience on the train.

“This man has been drugged just as she was!” Nancy decided. “And by the same people! They must be in the house!”

Repeatedly she called for help but no one came. Probably the people in the house could not hear her. Minutes later the lights went on again.

“If only someone would come here so I could leave!” Nancy thought unhappily. “The thieves are probably making a getaway this very minute.”

She hoped that members of the Velvet Gang would try to escape through the parking area, giving her a chance to intercept them. But time passed and no one came that way.

Nancy chafed the stranger’s wrists and presently he groaned. “Help!” he cried out feebly. Then he noticed Nancy and stared blankly into her face. “Where am I?” he mumbled.

“You’re in the parking area at the Claytons’,” Nancy told him. “Can you sit up?”

“I think so,” he said weakly. Carefully she helped him to a sitting position.

“That’s better,” he muttered. “I’ll be all right.”

“Can you recall what happened to you?” Nancy asked.

“It’s coming back now,” he said, brushing a hand across his eyes. “As I got out of the car I was grabbed from behind. A handkerchief with a peculiar odor was pressed to my face.”