Nobody's Business (13 page)

“Not bad for something Colleen just threw together in a day,” Nancy joked, watching the Teen Works kids, as well as the construction foreman and the master electrician, dancing in a cleared space in the middle of the room.

“I wonder where Andrew is,” Ned said, looking around. “Do you think the police would keep him at the station this long?”

“It's hard to say,” Nancy told him. “He's had a long day. Maybe he just didn't feel like going to a party.”

Nancy turned as Colleen broke through the crowd and came toward them. She wore a royal blue minidress covered entirely in sequins. Her red hair was swept up in a French twist, and she wore diamond and sapphire earrings with a matching necklace. Her hand was nestled in the arm of a distinguished-looking man with graying hair and warm, intelligent eyes.

“Wow!” Bess whispered to Nancy. “I wonder how much that outfit cost.”

Looking down at her own purple sweater dress, Nancy said, “I feel like a slob next to her.” The dressiest thing she had on was the heart-shaped pendant Ned had given her the year before for Valentine's Day.

“Hi, guys,” Colleen greeted them. “I'd like you to meet my husband, Frederick Morgan.”

Nancy, Ned, and Bess all shook the hand he offered. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Morgan,” Nancy said.

“Please call me Fred,” Colleen's husband told them. “And please, start eating right away. I think we ordered way too much food.”

“I'll do my best,” Bess said cheerfully, heading straight for the catering tables.

“I'm sure you'll find everything you'd like,” Frederick Morgan assured Nancy and Ned. “When my wife plans a party, she thinks of everything.” He wrapped an arm around Colleen's waist and pulled her close, planting an affectionate kiss on her cheek. “I don't know what I'd do without her.”

Colleen looked lovingly into her husband's eyes and stroked the graying hair above his temples. “I don't even want to
think
of what I'd do without you.”

“Let's mingle,” Ned murmured in Nancy's ear. “I feel like I'm intruding.”

With a smile Nancy grabbed Ned's hand and they left the Morgans. Then her smile vanished. “It still doesn't make sense to me,” she said in a low voice. “Colleen seems to have everything—looks, money, a wonderful husband . . .”

“Yeah,” Ned agreed. “It sort of rules her out as a suspect, doesn't it? I mean, why would she want to make trouble at the inn when her life is going so well?”

“That's the part that doesn't make sense,” Nancy said. “If she hasn't done anything wrong, then what's she acting so secretive about? I'm going to try to talk to her one more time.”

Nancy waited until she saw Colleen alone, clearing some empty glasses off a coffee table, then strode purposefully toward her. As soon as Colleen spotted her coming, however, she skirted away through the crowd. Before Nancy could
reach her, Colleen rejoined her husband, and the two of them wandered out a side door.

“She's avoiding me, I'm sure of it,” Nancy said, reappearing at Ned's side. She paused as Blaster's voice boomed out over a microphone.

“Listen up, partiers, it's the music meister,” Blaster said. He stood next to the makeshift sound system, wearing a baggy red shirt over faded blue jeans. “You've heard Top Forty tonight, but now it's time for a blast from Master B. You can tell your grandchildren you heard the tune here first—‘Bust 'Em Up' by the soon-to-be-famous recording star Master Blaster. I do it louder and faster!

“Yay!” Bess cheered. She was standing just a few feet away from Blaster, looking on encouragingly as he slipped a tape into the stereo and turned it on. First Nancy heard the sounds of cars crashing and glass breaking, followed by a driving beat and catchy riff of synthesized music.

“Not bad,” Ned said, tapping his feet.

Nancy automatically started bobbing her head to the beat. “He's talented,” she agreed. “But I'm more worried about Bess than the quality of the music.” She frowned as Blaster grabbed Bess's hands and led her into a small group of people who were already dancing.

“I'll keep an eye on him,” Ned promised.

“You're the best, Nickerson,” Nancy said, grinning.

Ned tapped her nose. “It's about time you
noticed,” he said warmly. “Uh-oh, you have that look on your face,” he added. “What are you planning, Nan?”

“I'm going to look around the house a bit and see if I can learn more about Colleen.”

Ned gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, “Good luck. I'll be right here if you need me.”

Nancy slipped out the door and followed the hallway back to the foyer. After seeing that none of the servants were around, she raced up the stairs, where she found another hallway. There were so many doors on either side of it that Nancy didn't know where to begin.

She moved quickly and silently, opening the doors one by one. After seeing a workout room with weight-lifting equipment and several bedrooms that didn't look lived in, Nancy opened the door to a room that was larger than the others. It held two dressers, an armchair, and a canopied bed with an embroidered white spread and a dozen white lace pillows. A pair of jeans and a silk blouse lay discarded on the bed.

Jackpot! thought Nancy. This had to be Colleen and Fred's room.

After entering quietly, Nancy closed the door behind her and started opening some of the dresser drawers. All she found were clothes, lingerie, scarves, jewelry, and other accessories. So far it looked as if the only thing Colleen was guilty of was having a fabulous wardrobe.

Then Nancy noticed an interior door, slightly
ajar. Padding softly over the plush white carpet, she opened the door and entered a smaller room with sleek, modern furniture. White shelves lined with books ran around all four walls, with a white laminated counter and drawers beneath. On the counter were a personal computer, laser printer, and fax machine.

Nancy checked over her shoulder to make sure she was still alone, then started going through the drawers beneath the counter. The top drawers held pencils, pens, office supplies, and stationery with Colleen's initials at the top. Lower down Nancy found old invitations from charity balls and several drawers full of photographs of Colleen and her husband.

As Nancy pulled out a deep bottom drawer, her pulse quickened. On top of a jumble of papers were a soldering iron, a drill, and several drill bits—the tools that had been taken from the inn.

Digging beneath the tools, Nancy saw that the drawer was loaded with old programs from school plays and ballet recitals, some dating twenty years back. At last, something from Colleen's past! Now Nancy could see if Colleen really had lied about her background.

Nancy gasped as she recognized a purple and white yearbook dated 1977. It was the same one she and Ned had seen that morning at Bentley High.

After carefully easing the yearbook out so that she wouldn't disturb anything else in the drawer,
Nancy started flipping to the pictures of graduating seniors. The yearbook fell open to the page with Guy Lewis's picture, and Nancy found a white envelope tucked inside.

“Hmm—” she said aloud, picking up the envelope. It was addressed to Colleen and had no return address, but the post office stamp was dated just a few weeks earlier.

Opening the envelope, Nancy saw that it contained several separate letters. And they were all from Guy Lewis!

Nancy skimmed the first one quickly:

Dear Colleen,

Remember old Guy? I bet you'd rather forget—ha-ha. I finally got out of prison after five long years. I need money real bad, and you're just the person to give it to me.

Why should you give old Guy a break? Because if you don't, I'll tell your rich husband that you were part of the theft ring back in high school. That won't sound too good when they write you up in the social register. I'll bet your husband might even divorce you when he finds out you've been keeping dirty secrets.

I'll only keep quiet if you give me fifty thousand dollars, time and place to be arranged. You'll be hearing from me soon.

Guy

Guy was trying to blackmail Colleen! Nancy felt light-headed as she quickly read the other letters.

Guy wrote that he had newspaper clippings detailing Colleen's arrest and the fact that she had served time in a juvenile detention center. He said he'd hidden the clippings in the basement of the Lakeside Inn when he'd passed through there. He also threatened to take them to Colleen's husband if she didn't come up with the money. There was no letter telling Colleen where to meet Guy and drop the money, but Nancy had seen enough.

No wonder Colleen had volunteered to work at the inn. She'd been trying to find the newspaper articles and destroy them before Guy used them to destroy her life.

That explained why she'd spent so much time in the basement with the old newspapers. She probably thought the articles about her were hidden among them. And she'd been trying to scare everyone else away from the inn because she'd been afraid someone else would find the articles before she did.

“What are you doing here?”

Nancy jumped and whirled around to find Colleen standing in the open doorway to the study. Colleen's green eyes flashed as she stared at the letters in Nancy's hand, and there was a tense set to her jaw. Nancy had been caught red-handed!

“Don't even bother trying to think of an excuse,” Colleen went on. Her face became an icy mask as she snatched the letters from Nancy's hand, then reached toward a bottom drawer Nancy hadn't yet examined. “I know exactly what you're doing here. You're a real snoop, aren't you?”

Nancy rose slowly to her feet, letting the yearbook slide to the floor. Her eyes darted quickly around as she tried to find a way out of the room. There was a second door in the opposite wall, but Nancy wasn't sure where it led.

“Oh, yes,” Colleen said, opening the drawer. “You're leaving, all right. But you're leaving with
me!”

In one swift motion Colleen pulled a gun out of the drawer and aimed it right at Nancy!

N
ANCY FORCED HERSELF
to breathe deeply, fighting the fear that was welling inside her. She didn't want to make any sudden moves that might make Colleen react rashly.

“You're not really going to use that,” Nancy said, trying to keep her voice firm.

“Try me,” Colleen said, cocking the trigger of the gun.

“How are you going to explain a dead body to your husband?” Nancy prodded. “That's going to be a lot harder than telling him you did time for stealing.”

A tiny muscle in Colleen's cheek twitched. “So you read about that, huh? Well, you're going to take that secret to your grave. I'll just tell Fred
you were trying to steal my jewelry. I'll say the gun is yours and it went off accidentally. It's unregistered, so Fred will never know I was the one who pulled the trigger.”

Nancy shivered at the cool, matter-of-fact way Colleen was talking about murder. So much for the selfless socialite who wanted to make the world a better place.

“You'd do anything to hide the truth from him, wouldn't you?” Nancy challenged.

“You bet I would,” Colleen said. “He's the best thing that ever happened to me. Nobody's going to ruin what we have together.” She frowned slightly. “But you have a point—a dead body will ruin the carpet. Turn around, slowly, and open the other door.”

Stalling for time, Nancy asked, “Where are we going?”

“Never mind where. Just open the door and start walking.”

Nancy's mind raced, trying to figure a way out. She had to obey Colleen, but at least she could leave something behind, some sign so her friends would know she'd been here.

Reaching up as if to scratch her neck, Nancy undid the clasp of the pendant Ned had given her for Valentine's Day and let the pendant slip down the front of her sweater to the white carpet. Then, opening the other door of the study, she entered a narrow, dimly lit back stairway. As she made her
way down the stairs, she was acutely aware of the hard barrel of Colleen's gun pressed against her back.

“Now, down the hall and out the door,” Colleen directed.

Nancy did as she was told and found herself in a four-car garage. The car nearest her was a dark green Jaguar. Colleen gestured for Nancy to get in behind the wheel, while Colleen got in beside her. The car keys were dangling from the ignition.

Pressing a small remote clipped to the sun visor, Colleen opened one of the garage doors. “Drive,” she commanded.

“Where are we going?” Nancy asked.

“To the inn. We're going to put an end to this once and for all. You're going to disappear very mysteriously, without a trace, in fact. Even if they question me about it, they'll never be able to pin anything on me.”

Nancy gripped the wheel tightly to keep her hands from trembling as she backed the car out of the garage and turned it around.