Nancy's Mysterious Letter (7 page)
Read Nancy's Mysterious Letter Online
Authors: Carolyn G. Keene
“Everybody is so kind to me except—except my brother. He gives me orders every time he comes here.”
Nancy sat down. “Did he come to get money from you?”
Ira Nixon shook his head. “Not this time,” he said. “And that’s why I sent for you. Here’s what happened.
“Edgar came here about an hour ago. As soon as he’d gone I tried to get you on the phone but it was busy. My brother was all dressed up as usual and he has a new car. It’s red.”
Nancy made no comment about the new car, but she was thinking hard. “Yes?” she urged Mr. Nixon, who had stopped speaking. “Go on.”
“Nancy, that boy had nothing to do with my hard luck, I’m sure of that now.” The postman continued. “He said he came here as soon as he heard about the mail robbery. He was as sympathetic as you are. Wanted me to give him some. of my inheritance to hire a private detective and clear up the whole matter.”
“Have you received all of your inheritance?” Nancy asked.
“Not a cent. I told him that.”
Ira Nixon went on to say that Edgar had tried to talk him into handing over any money he had on hand. “He said he would take care of all the details of hiring a detective, but some cash would help a lot.”
Nancy had her own idea of just how much detective hiring Ira would have received for the money, but she said nothing.
“So you see,” Ira continued, “you were all wrong about Edgar. He’s not a suspect. He knew nothing about the stolen mail. He’s too dictatorial to suit me, but I certainly can’t say he’s a thief.”
Nancy made no comment but asked, “Did your brother happen to say where he’s staying?”
“Oh yes. There’s no secret about that,” Mr. Nixon went on. “He’s boarding up in Ridgefield. He even gave me his address. I have it written down here. Wait a minute—
“Here it is!” Ira took a slip of paper from the pocket of his bathrobe. “He boards with a family named Hemmer on Harrison Street.”
Nancy got up to leave. “By the way, did your brother ever mention a girl friend?”
“Not until today,” the old man replied. “Edgar said he’s going to marry a rich girl very soon.”
“What’s her name?”
“He didn’t say.”
Nancy wondered if it could be the English Nancy Drew. In any case, she decided to go to Ridgefield right away and see what she could find out. Before leaving, Nancy asked if Edgar Nixon were employed.
His brother shrugged. “We never discussed his affairs. He was always well dressed and had a car, so I guess he made a good living.”
Further suspicion ran through Nancy’s mind. It seemed most unnatural for a brother to be so uncommunicative. It was just possible that Edgar’s way of earning a living was too shady for him to reveal.
After saying good-by to Ira Nixon, Nancy drove directly to police headquarters and asked to see Chief McGinnis. She was told to go right into his office.
“Hello, Nancy,” he said. “You’ve been neglecting us lately.” He grinned and added, “I thought you’d have the mystery of the missing mail solved by this time.”
“Here’s one of the clues,” said Nancy
“Not quite yet,” Nancy replied. “But I do have some interesting clues. Here’s one of them,” she said, handing over the worn shoe to Chief McGinnis.
Nancy went on to bring the chief up to date about all the information she had on the suspect.
“I’m going to drive up to Ridgefield and do a little investigating,” she said. “If I turn up any valuable clues, shall I get in touch with you or the Ridgefield police?”
“You’d better tell the chief up there.”
Directly after lunch Nancy phoned Bess and George and asked if they could drive over to Ridgefield with her. George said at once she would not miss it for anything.
“Is this a dangerous assignment?” Bess queried.
Nancy laughed. “I haven’t heard yet that Edgar Nixon gets rough, but then you never can tell.”
At once Bess knew she was being teased. “I’m not chicken. When do you want me to be ready?”
“In half an hour. Okay?”
“I guess I could put on some lipstick and powder and get my hair combed by that time,” Bess replied.
Before leaving, Nancy called her father to see if any further word had come from England. She was told No.
“I guess we’ll just have to wait for a letter,” the lawyer said.
Nancy then told him of her proposed trip to Ridgefield and the new clues she had picked up.
“Good for you,” her father said. “Well, I hope the next time I talk to my daughter, she’ll have lots of good news for me.”
“I’ll try hard.”
A few minutes later Nancy set off. She picked up George first and then went on to the Marvin home. Bess was not waiting for her in front of the house so Nancy honked the horn. Her friend did not appear.
A look of disgust came over George’s face. “That cousin of mine never watches the clock. She’s probably writing letters and making phone calls and doing a lot of things and here we are waiting.”
Nancy tooted again. When Bess still did not come outside, she got out of the car and went to the front door.
At that instant Bess opened it. She apologized for being late and said she had just finished talking to Dave Evans, who had called her from Emerson.
“I have something interesting to tell you, Nancy,” she said. “Ned tried to phone you but you’d already left the house. I’m glad Dave caught me.”
“What is the big news?” Nancy asked, trying not to be impatient.
Bess explained that the young woman who was coaching the Shakespearean play and was known as N. Smith Drew was indeed Nancy Smith Drew.
“How marvelous!” Nancy exclaimed.
“There’s more to it,” Bess went on.
As the two girls reached Nancy’s convertible, she related the first part of the message to George. Then she added, “Nancy Smith Drew has gone to Ridgefield!”
“Ridgefield?” Nancy cried out.
The three girls stared at one another, the same thought Hashing through their minds. Was it merely coincidence that the actress and Edgar Nixon had gone to Ridgefield at the same time? Or had she perhaps been drawn into some kind of racket with the suspect?
Bess exclaimed, “Wouldn’t that be awful!”
George expressed a further thought. “Maybe Miss Drew found out he stole the letter from England and went to Ridgefield to get it.”
Bess looked puzzled. “Are you trying to say Edgar plans to keep her from learning about the inheritance?”
“Could be,” George answered. “I wouldn’t put anything past that man.”
Nancy nodded. All the suspicions she had had about Edgar Nixon now came back to her.
“Of course all this doesn’t explain the money sent to Dad which was stolen,” she said.
“Edgar’s a slick one,” George remarked.
Nancy was worried. “Girls, I’m afraid that he intends to marry Nancy Smith Drew, perhaps in Ridgefield, and enjoy the inheritance that is coming to her.”
“How despicable!” Bess cried. “And Miss Drew, I’m sure, is too nice a person to be tied to a dishonest husband.”
George grinned. “In any case, we’d better get to Ridgefield as fast as we can and stop the wedding!”
CHAPTER X
Search for a Bride
“IT’s starting to snow,” Bess remarked as a few flakes hit the windshield of Nancy’s convertible.
Before leaving home, she had put the top up because the day was cloudy and raw, with a hint of stormy weather.
Bess went on, “Oh, I hope it won’t be bad. Nancy, does this car have snow tires?”
Before Nancy could reply, George spoke up. “Bess, you have so little faith in people. Of course Nancy would have snow tires and good ones at that.”
Her cousin defended herself quickly. “After working with Nancy on all the mysteries she’s asked us to help her solve, you know even the smartest people can be forgetful sometimes!”
Nancy laughed. “You girls have driven with me in snowstorms many times. Nevertheless I promise to be careful. Oh, it’s getting to be worse fast.”
Due to the storm, it took longer to get to Ridgefield than Nancy had hoped, but she was buoyed up by an exciting thought. Soon she would either come face to face with Edgar Nixon or find out whether or not he was married.
When the girls arrived on the outskirts of Ridgefield, the snow was deep. Nancy asked directions to Harrison Street. She found it blocked off by a snow removal machine which had stalled.
Nancy turned down a hill and parked near the foot of it. The three girls climbed back up, turned right on Harrison Street, and trudged along the unshoveled sidewalk.
Finally they came to Mrs. Hemmer’s guesthouse. By this time the girls were covered with snow. Before stepping onto the porch, they brushed off what snow they could and stamped their boots.
Nancy rang the bell. In a minute it was answered by a plain-looking woman in her sixties. She looked surprised to see the three callers.
“What can I do for you?” she asked. “You lost or just cold?”
The girls smiled and Nancy replied, “We’re all right. We had to park on the next street so we got covered with snow walking up here. Is Mr. Edgar Nixon at home?”
“Why—uh—no,” Mrs. Hemmer answered. “What do you want to see him about?”
“When will he be back?” Nancy replied, deliberately evading the woman’s question. Mrs. Hemmer surveyed her callers from head to toe before saying, “You look like nice honest young ladies. The answer is that Edgar Nixon moved out this morning.”
“Oh!” the three girls chorused.
“Did you know ahead of time he was going?” Nancy queried.
“No, I didn’t,” the woman said. “He never hinted at such a thing. As a matter of fact, he seemed quite happy here. But then, I suppose when you inherit money you want to move to better quarters.”
The girls tried not to show their excitement at this statement. Nancy said nonchalantly, “So Edgar inherited some money?”
Mrs. Hemmer became more talkative. “It’s kind of cold for me standin’ here. Won’t you come inside?”
Nancy and her friends followed the woman. She led them to her living room, which was cheerful despite the dull day.
“Mr. Nixon didn’t say where the money was coming from,” Mrs. Hemmer went on, “but he told me it was a big sum and now he was going to change his type of work.”
“What sort of work did he do?” George asked.
“That I don’t know,” the woman replied. “Mr. Nixon was kind of mysterious about his affairs, but I suspect he was in some mail-order business. He received lots of letters.”
Nancy could see her excellent clue fast petering out. No doubt Edgar would have notified the post office already of his change of address. Finally Nancy asked the question that was uppermost in her mind.
“Did Edgar Nixon say he was going to be married, Mrs. Hemmer?”
“Not this morning he didn’t,” the woman said. “But he mentioned it yesterday.”
“I suppose he was pretty excited about it,” Nancy remarked, trying hard not to show her rising excitement. “Who’s the young lady?”
Mrs. Hemmer said he had not mentioned her name. “But I suppose she was the one who came here this morning.”
The three girls looked at one another. Before they had a chance to ask anything about her, Mrs. Hemmer went on, “To tell you the truth, I don’t think it was very polite of Mr. Nixon not to introduce her to me. I went to the door and let her in. He came rushing down the stairs with his two suitcases and said, ‘Let’s go!’ ”
Nancy heaved a sigh, but tried not to reveal her great disappointment. “I’m sure she’s the person we’re trying to find. Too bad you didn’t learn her name. Can you tell us anything about her?”
“I didn’t pay particular attention,” Mrs. Hemmer answered. “She was tall and all bundled up in fur. I did notice, though, that she spoke with a British accent.”
Now there was no doubt in Nancy’s mind that the person who had come to the house was Nancy Smith Drew. Her heart sank as she thought that by this time she and Edgar Nixon might be husband and wife.
“We must go,” Nancy said. “Thank you for all the time you’ve given us.” She smiled. “Don’t be surprised if we come back and call on you again.”
“Glad to see you any time,” the woman told her.
As the girls trudged up the snowy street, Bess said, “Do you plan to do any more sleuthing in Ridgefield?”
“I’m going to the Town Hall and see if Edgar Nixon took out a marriage license,” Nancy told her.
Through inquiries she learned that the building was not far away, so the girls decided to walk there. They were told that no marriage license had been issued to the couple.
“They could have been married almost any place,” Bess spoke up. “Trying to get that information would be like hunting for a needle in a haystack.”
Nancy turned back to the clerk and said, “Do you have a justice of the peace in this town?”
“Yes we do. He has an office on the second floor.”
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