Danger on Parade (10 page)

“You don't expect us to believe that, do you?” Bess asked angrily.

Louis let out a little laugh. “Business is a funny
thing,” he said. “Ideas are stolen every day. By the time they're released to the public, no one's sure whose idea it really was in the first place.”

“What are you trying to say?” Nancy asked.

“What if I said Mitchell's had stolen
my
scent?” Louis said. “How would they prove me wrong? It's a very difficult area of the law, not to mention a very expensive one. Mitchell's would be better off financially to forget about the whole thing than to fight me in court and risk losing.” He smiled broadly at Nancy and Bess. “A photocopy of some formulas isn't exactly concrete proof.”

Nancy exchanged a quick look with Bess. Louis Clark was smooth, all right. His smug attitude told her that he
had
stolen the formula—he'd practically admitted it to them! But he seemed to think he couldn't be caught. And if he wasn't going to admit to stealing the perfume, Nancy was sure he wouldn't admit to any sabotage, either. It looked as if she and Bess were back at square one.

• • •

“He's got some nerve!” Jules exclaimed. As planned, he met Nancy and Bess again at the coffee shop. Over mugs of hot chocolate, the girls told him what had happened in Louis Clark's office.

Bess frowned and propped her chin in her hands. “He's a criminal who might never get
caught, and I'm a totally innocent person who might go to jail,” she said. “Isn't there something we can do?”

“We have to tell my father,” Jules said firmly. “He'll get his lawyers on it right away.”

Suddenly his expression changed, and he looked nervously from Bess to Nancy. “Not to change the subject or anything, but my dad told me about what happened when you saw him yesterday, Nancy,” he said, fidgeting with his mug. “Did you find out anything about the sabotage?”

Nancy shook her head. “Nothing concrete,” she replied. She hesitated, then said, “I know this is a lot to ask, since he's your father—but is there any way you can help me get into his office when he's not there, so I can look for clues that might link him to the sabotage?”

Jules didn't answer right away. For a moment, Nancy was afraid he'd say no. Then he took a deep breath and said, “He's out at a meeting this morning with some of his creditors. We can go over now and tell the receptionist that we need to see him and that we'll wait in his office. I do that a lot.”

After finishing their cocoa, the three walked to Mitchell's and made their way up to Howard Langley's ninth-floor office. Nancy stood behind Jules, hoping the receptionist wouldn't recognize her from the day before. She smiled when she saw
Jules. When he explained that they wanted to wait for his father, she waved them into the office. She hardly glanced at Nancy and Bess.

“Great!” Bess said as soon as Jules closed the door behind them. “What do we do now, Nan?”

“Look for the same kinds of things we did in Louis Clark's office,” Nancy whispered. “Anything to do with the parade, the explosion, the missing costumes, the slashed balloons, or anything unusual.”

Nancy walked over to Mr. Langley's desk and started searching through a stack of papers and files there. Bess went over to a console against the right wall and began looking around the television set and video cassette recorder, while Jules looked on the shelves.

Nancy didn't find anything unusual on the desktop, so she opened the top drawer. Just as she was about to reach inside, a booming voice startled her.

“What in the world is going on in here?”

N
ANCY LOOKED UP
from behind the desk to see Howard Langley looming large in the doorway, his hands on his hips and an angry expression on his face. “What is going on in here?” he repeated.

Nancy slowly closed the desk drawer. She shot a worried glance at Jules and Bess, who both looked as shocked and surprised as she felt.

“Uh, hi, Dad,” Jules said. “Nancy and Bess were helping me get to work on an important assignment.” His voice was steady, but Nancy noticed that his face was white.

“What important assignment, and how does it at all involve me, my office, and my private papers?” Howard Langley walked across the room, leveling a disapproving gaze at Nancy, who moved away from the desk. “Hello, Ms.
Drew,” he said curtly. His eyes drifted to Bess, and he added, “I don't believe I know your other friend.”

Jules introduced Bess, then said, “Dad, I have some bad news—”

“Jules, I just met with our creditors. I don't need any more bad news today,” Mr. Langley said wearily.

Jules walked over and stood face-to-face with his father. “Louis Clark has stolen the formula for our new Forever perfume.”

“What!” Mr. Langley exclaimed. His tired expression was immediately replaced by a look of outrage.

Jules, Nancy, and Bess quickly told him about finding the formulas and confronting Louis Clark. “That's why we were going through things,” Jules concluded. “We wanted to gather any papers we could to prove that Mitchell's lab invented the perfume first.”

Nancy had to admit Jules sounded believable. She held her breath, waiting to see if Mr. Langley would buy the story.

“I always love a fight,” Howard finally said. He pressed a button on the intercom. “Call the lawyers,” he yelled into the machine. His eyes held a challenging gleam as he turned back to Jules, Nancy, and Bess.

“I'm going to make sure Louis Clark is put in jail for trespassing at the lab and for stealing the perfume formula,” Mr. Langley said. “We have
every paper to prove that we created that scent. Louis won't have enough time to create a paper trail that's half as convincing.”

Nancy looked over at Bess, who breathed a sigh of relief. Nancy could see that it was easier to be on the same side as Mr. Langley than to work against him. She remembered how sure of himself Louis Clark had been earlier that day. Now she knew that taking on Howard Langley wasn't going to be half as easy as Louis Clark had predicted.

The intercom on Mr. Langley's desk buzzed, and the secretary announced that the store's attorneys were on the line. Howard motioned for Jules and the girls to leave his office so he could speak to the lawyers in private.

Jules led Nancy and Bess out. As they rode the elevator downstairs, they breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“I thought for sure we were goners,” Jules said. “I can't believe none of us heard him coming.”

“I know! You did a brilliant job of covering, Jules,” Bess said, grinning at him.

“It was perfect,” Nancy chimed in.

With a nervous smile, Jules said, “At least the whole Louis Clark mess took Dad's mind off why we were sneaking around his office.” His voice dropped to a whisper as he added, “I'll go home right now and look around his office there. Maybe I'll find something that links him to the sabotage. Where can I call you if I do?”

Nancy gave him her aunt's phone number, and then they went downstairs. Nancy paused just before the revolving doors leading outside and checked her watch. It was almost one o'clock.

“Um, Nan?” Bess said, biting her lip. “Maybe we should go to the parade studio and see if we can help repair the balloons,” she suggested. “They can probably use all the help they can get. After all, the parade is tomorrow.”

Nancy hesitated. After last night, she was sure Jill wouldn't want Bess anywhere near the parade studio. Then again, Bess
was
innocent. If they went to help out, Nancy would also have a chance to look for more clues as to who the real saboteur was.

Smiling at Bess, Nancy said, “Good idea. Let's grab a sandwich at the deli across the street, and then we'll get a cab to the parade studio.”

• • •

Nancy and Bess arrived at the parade studio in Brooklyn just as one of the workers was exiting.

“Good,” Nancy said under her breath to Bess, as the young man held the door open for them. “We don't have to worry about getting in.”

After thanking the young man, the girls made their way down the hall to the studio. When they opened the door, the first thing Nancy saw was a camera crew over by the balloons. Aileen Nash was interviewing Jill, who explained on-camera that the police thought a neighborhood prankster had broken in and slashed the balloons.

“At least she isn't accusing me on TV,” Bess whispered glumly as she and Nancy approached the camera crew.

Dozens of people were working to repair the balloons, using needles and a soft, rubbery material. On the other side of the room, final touches were being applied to some floats.

As Nancy and Bess listened to the interview, Jill explained that the balloons and floats would be transported later that afternoon to the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. That was the starting point of the parade. Final preparations at the museum would last through the night until the parade began in the morning.

A few minutes later Aileen and Jill wrapped up the report. While the camera crew packed up, Nancy and Bess walked over to the two women.

“Hi, Nancy,” Aileen said, smiling. Nancy introduced Bess to the newscaster. Bess said hello to Jill, but Jill just frowned and turned away. After saying something to one of the workers who was repairing balloons, Jill headed back toward the hallway.

“I, uh, I guess I'll ask these workers if there's anything I can do,” Bess said uneasily.

“I'll tell Jill what we found out,” Nancy said, purposely being vague about Mr. Clark and Mr. Langley so that she wouldn't give any information away to the reporter. “I know we don't have proof yet, but Jill has to recognize that you're not the only suspect for the sabotage.”

Aileen fell into step with Nancy as she headed toward the hallway leading to Jill's office. “I take it your friend is the one Jill has been so upset about lately,” Aileen said.

“Bess didn't do anything,” Nancy said firmly.

“Whatever you say,” Aileen said, but her tone revealed her doubts. When they got to Jill's office, Aileen waved a goodbye to Jill through the open doorway, then continued down to the outside door.

Nancy was relieved that the newswoman didn't linger. She didn't want anyone else around when she told Jill about the perfume formula— and about her suspicions of Howard Langley.

Jill was on the phone when Nancy walked into the office. “Yes, please have the helium delivered directly to the Museum of Natural History,” she said. After talking a few moments longer, Jill hung up.

It took only a few minutes for Nancy to bring Jill up to date on her discovery that Louis Clark was stealing Mitchell's new perfume.

“Wow,” Jill said, looking surprised. “So that really
was
his handkerchief you found here the other night.”

Nancy nodded. “I have a theory about who might be responsible for sabotaging the parade, too.” After taking a deep breath, she told Jill of Jules's theory that his own father was trying to ruin the parade. “I know it sounds crazy, but
maybe he's trying to make sure the store doesn't ever have to lay out money for the parade again,” she finished.

Jill's mouth had dropped open during Nancy's explanation. Now she sat quietly, a thoughtful look on her face. “Mr. Langley
does
hate the parade,” she finally said. Then she shook herself. “I'm sorry, Nancy, but we can't rule out Bess,” she said firmly. “All the evidence points to her.”

Nancy let out a breath of frustration. “I just wish there was a way to prove that someone has been setting her up. Someone had to have come to the parade studio right before up last night, she said. “If there was only a way to keep track of everyone who comes and goes . . .”

Suddenly Jill blinked and straightened up. “Wait a minute—maybe there
is
a way!” she said excitedly. “All the locks are hooked into a main computer bank back at the store. The ID numbers are screened whenever someone uses a card to enter one of the restricted areas. It's a long shot, but maybe we can get some kind of computer record of who's been here during the last few days.”

Nancy's heart pounded with excitement as Jill reached for her phone and punched in a number. “Then we could see who was in the warehouse at the time of the different incidents,” Nancy said, thinking out loud. “There hasn't been any sign of forced entry, except for the break-in at the cosmetics
lab. And we know that was Louis Clark. Chances are, the other attacks were made by a Mitchell's employee.”

Jill nodded. “The list wouldn't include people like you and Bess, who enter the building with someone else, but it might provide some clue— Oh, hello, Richard. Jill here,” she said into the receiver. She spoke briefly to the head of security at Mitchell's, then hung up and turned back to Nancy.