Shadow of a Doubt (12 page)

There was one way to find out, she realized, and she headed quickly in the direction of Mobley and Myerson.

As she drove to Nicodemus's building, Nancy tried to devise a plan for getting into the building and offices. It wouldn't be easy, and there was a good chance that some of the lawyers might be working late.

Along the way, she devised her plan. With all the secretaries she'd seen on this case, she knew she could pose as one of them.

Getting past the security guard in the lobby was easier than she thought it would be. She told him she was a temporary secretary and
that she had left her purse in the office. He let her by without even making her sign the building register.

At first Nancy was going to take the elevator to Nicodemus's floor. Then she realized it would be easier to get into the offices if she went to the floor below Nicodemus's and took the internal stairs.

When the elevator doors opened on the fourteenth floor, Nancy saw her opportunity. One of the cleaning crews had left an oversize trash can on wheels outside the bank of elevators.

Nancy put on a pair of rubber gloves she found hanging over the trash can and wheeled it through the firm's glass doors. If anyone asked her what she was doing there, she'd answer that she was a new member of the cleaning crew.

After a few wrong turns, Nancy found the firm's internal stairs and dragged the garbage can up the short flight. She made her way in the direction of Nicodemus's office.

Most of the lights were out in this part of the firm. Nancy heard a few voices at the end of the hallway, but realized they were coming from the opposite direction of Nicodemus's office.

Quickly Nancy pushed the garbage can down the hall and stopped outside Nicodemus's office. She tried the knob. The
door was unlocked. Slowly she inched the door open, her heart pounding. Nicodemus wasn't inside.

All the lights were on, but Nicodemus wasn't there. Nancy hurried over to his desk. There, she saw an employee file and several pink message slips laid out on the top of it. Nancy quickly opened the file. It belonged to Cheryl Pomeroy. Maybe Nicodemus suspects something's up with her, Nancy thought.

Then Nancy picked up one of the message slips. It was a reminder that Dennis Allard had called. The time on the slip was right after Allard had caught Nancy in his building!

She scanned Nicodemus's bookshelves and ran her eyes over his desk. Then she started searching through the other papers on his desk.

Before Nancy could start on anything, she heard voices in the hallway. She stood perfectly still and listened. They were moving closer and closer toward Nicodemus's office.

Nancy held her breath. She was about to be caught red-handed in Peter Nicodemus's office!

A
WAVE OF FEAR
passed over her. There wasn't going to be an easy explanation for why she was in Peter Nicodemus's office. If it were Nicodemus himself who was heading her way, she was in even worse trouble.

After giving the office a wistful glance—she'd have given anything for the opportunity to really search the place—Nancy slipped out the door.

At one end of the long hallway, Nancy saw two figures deep in conversation. Most of the hall lights were off, so Nancy was in shadow too. Without stopping to see whether or not it
was Nicodemus at the end of the hall, Nancy took off in the opposite direction.

She crossed the hallway and dashed around a corner. She had nearly made her way to the small flight of stairs that would take her back down to safety when she heard a voice call out.

“Hold it right there!” a man shouted. “Stop!”

Nancy desperately looked around for an escape. Then she spied her only chance. Ten feet ahead of her there was a fire door with the word Exit in red lettering.

Quickly Nancy ran to the door and pushed it open. A clamorous din of alarms greeted her as she found herself in a half-lit stairwell.

Nancy took a second for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Then she flew down the steps, taking them three at a time, sliding her hand down the railing for balance.

One flight down, Nancy heard footsteps on the stairs behind her. She forced herself not to turn around and look but to continue her flying leaps instead.

Then Nancy heard the loud, unmistakable blast of a shot echoing over and over in the stairwell. The bullet ricocheted off the cement wall only inches from her.

She had no choice. Almost without thinking, Nancy leapt over the railing. She banged her knee badly but hardly felt the blow.

After landing with a bone-jarring crash one
flight down, Nancy ducked. Another shot sent shards of cement flying above her head.

Unless she could find some way to disarm her pursuer, Nancy knew she was trapped. She jumped the railing again down still another flight, and, before getting up, took a second to think. In a flash, she thought of one slim possibility. It might work.

She pounded her feet, making loud running sounds. Then she threw herself to the ground in the shadow of the staircase and waited breathlessly.

In a few seconds Nancy spied Peter Nicodemus charging down the stairs, taking them two at a time. She leaned farther into the shadows, making herself as small as possible until just the right moment. Then, when he was within striking distance, she put out her leg and sent him flying.

Nicodemus stumbled to his knees and looked at Nancy for a moment before losing his balance and sailing down the flight of stairs. Nancy took off after him and jumped over the last step as Nicodemus landed in a heap at her feet.

Before he had the chance to reach for his gun again, Nancy raised her right arm and brought it down with a resounding crack right between his shoulder blades. The man sank down again, this time unconscious.

Nancy didn't wait for him to wake up. She
took one deep breath and ran as fast as she could down the remaining flights of stairs. If she was lucky, he wouldn't revive until she was well on her way to safety.

• • •

“You're lucky to be alive,” Kate said as she gave Nancy an ice pack.

They were sitting in Robert Gleason's living room on what passed for a sofa. After her ordeal, Nancy had called Kate and Chris at home, and they'd arranged to meet, along with Cheryl, at Gleason's apartment. It seemed a private place to plan their next move.

“Don't I know it,” Nancy said. She put the ice on her knee, which was swelling pretty badly. “But we don't have time to think about it. Nicodemus has probably been in touch with Allard by now and they've already planned their next move.”

Chris looked up. He was poring over his father's notebook. “I wish I had some good news,” he said. “But I haven't been able to come up with anything concrete.”

Kate's eyes grew large with either fear or disappointment, Nancy couldn't tell. But she knew they had to come up with something fast.

“Go over it again,” Kate said, wringing her hands. “We've got to find that evidence.”

“I've tried. But there's nothing here except what we already know. Appointments with Cheryl and Allard. Errands. Notes.”

“What do the notes say?” Nancy asked, hobbling to the table and leaning over Chris's shoulder.

“Lawyer. Drew. Allard. DA. Bank. Vaughn. I'm telling you, there's nothing here except gibberish.”

“Wait a minute,” Nancy said. “Let me see.”

Nancy quickly went back to the day Gleason had an appointment with Allard, then flipped the pages forward one by one.

“Why,” she asked, “would your father have gone back to River Heights Bank and Trust the day before he died if he'd already met with Allard? It wouldn't have done him any good. Unless he wanted to try to trace the money as you and I did.”

“But,” said Chris, “I asked that guy—what's his name? Alan?—if my dad had been there, and he said no.”

“You're sure?” Nancy asked.

“Positive.”

“Then there had to be some other reason.” She closed the pages of the notebook, got up, and began pacing the room, favoring her sore right leg.

“Why else go to a bank? Not to open an account—he didn't have any money. But he's got a note here.” She went back to the date book and found the page she was looking for. “It says, ‘bring passport.' Why bring a passport
to a bank if you're not going to open an account?”

Nancy stood up straight. Then she banged her forehead with the ball of her left hand.

“I can't believe how stupid I've been,” she said. “All the time, it's been staring us right in the face.”

“What has?” Kate asked. “Don't keep us dangling.”

Nancy went over what they knew. “Cheryl gave your father a computer file that contained a set of books that proved he'd been framed by Dennis Allard, right?”

Cheryl nodded. “It looks that way.”

“And your father wanted to make sure it was safe until he could give it to the DA,” Nancy said excitedly. The pieces were all coming together.

“Slow down,” Chris said. “Why didn't he take it straight to Levine? Why wait?” he asked.

Nancy shook her head. “I don't know,” she said slowly. “But the day before he died, he went back to River Heights Bank and Trust. And that's where he hid the evidence!”

“What?” Chris practically shouted.

“Your father did what a lot of people do,” Nancy concluded. “He hid the evidence in the most obvious place possible. At Allard's bank. In a safe deposit box.”

“Of course,” Chris said. “The printout
would be small enough to hide in a safe deposit box.”

Kate ran to Nancy and flung her arms around Nancy's neck. “Oh, Nancy, thank you,” she said, her voice breaking.

“Hold on,” Nancy said, pulling Kate's arms from around her. “There's no guarantee it's there. But if it is, we've got to get to it before Allard does. If he hasn't already.”

“But Allard couldn't have known where it was, or else he'd have destroyed it by now and he'd have nothing to worry about,” Chris said.

“True enough,” Nancy said. “But we can't take any chances. I'm going to call the District Attorney.”

Nancy went over to the far end of the kitchen and picked up the phone. Then she realized that there was no chance that the DA would still be at the office at this hour. Nancy took a deep breath and called her father.

“Dad,” she said, “I need your help.” She quickly explained why she was calling.

“That's great news!” Carson said excitedly. Nancy could also sense the relief in his voice. “Hold on, I'll get Levine's home phone number.”

Nancy waited. In a minute her father came back on the line and gave her the number. As they were about to hang up, Carson warned her to be careful.

“You don't know that Allard isn't after you right now,” he said.

“I know,” Nancy told him. “That's why I want to call Levine right away.”

“There's the doorbell, Nancy. I've got to go. Call me back as soon as you have some news.”

“I will,” Nancy said, hanging up.

As Chris, Kate, and Cheryl watched expectantly, Nancy dialed Levine's number. “Joe Levine, please,” she said. There was a pause, and Nancy mouthed “He's coming” to Chris and Kate.

“Mr. Levine, it's Nancy Drew.” Nancy was about to tell him about the safe deposit box and her suspicions, but the district attorney cut her off.

“What's he saying?” Kate asked. Chris signaled for her to be quiet.

“Yes, I understand,” Nancy said. “Can I call you back? I'm here with Chris and Kate now and I should tell them. I'll call you back.”

Nancy hung up the phone and turned to the Gleasons and Cheryl. “I've got some news you ought to hear,” she said carefully. “The police did a handwriting analysis on your father's note. Although it's a close imitation of his handwriting, it doesn't match.”

“What are you saying?” Chris asked, holding his breath.

“Joe Levine's come to the same conclusion you did. That someone killed your father.”

Kate reached out and fell into her brother's arms. “We were right all along,” she said, crying into his shoulder.

“For what it's worth,” Chris said sadly. “Does he have any idea who would have done it?” he asked Nancy.

“I didn't get a chance to ask. But I'd be willing to bet that Dennis Allard is behind it.”

Nancy led Cheryl over to the sofa and sat her down. Chris and Kate stood in the kitchen, holding on to each other and talking softly. She decided to leave them alone for a little while to let the news sink in.

Finally, after five or ten minutes, Nancy went over to them. “I know this isn't the best time, but we have to plan our next move. I have to call Levine back and I want to be able to tell him that you can go with him tomorrow to the bank to get into the safe deposit box.”

“I can handle it,” Chris said. “I'm just glad that this whole thing is coming to an end.”