The Haunted Showboat (9 page)
Read The Haunted Showboat Online
Authors: Carolyn Keene
Tags: #Mardi Gras, #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Showboats, #Carnival, #Mystery & Detective, #Juvenile Fiction, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Detectives, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Haunted Places - Louisiana - New Orleans, #River Boats, #Women Sleuths, #Adventure Stories, #New Orleans (La.), #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Haunted Places, #Mystery and Detective Stories
“Donna Mae,” Nancy began, “I’m sorry that I—”
“Oh, don’t be sorry about anything,” Donna Mae said airily, admiring her left profile in the mirror. “Go to the Bartolomes if you wish. It means nothing to me.”
Nancy was both perplexed and amused by the girl’s seeming change of heart. But she was convinced that Donna Mae was putting on an act and that she was actually in love with Charles —only too proud to admit it.
“You don’t mind if we accept?” Nancy asked.
“Certainly not,” Donna Mae replied. “And please tell Mother for me.”
Nancy hurried downstairs. She met Mrs. Haver in the hall and gave her Donna Mae’s message. The hostess forced a laugh and said, “Well, I’m glad that’s straightened out.”
Just then, the telephone rang and she went to answer it. A few moments later Mrs. Haver came out to the patio where Nancy had rejoined her friends. Their hostess said that Mrs. Bartolome had called to confirm the dinner invitation.
“She’ll expect you girls at seven.”
Later, when Nancy was alone in her own room with Bess and George, she told them of her conversation with Donna Mae and added her own thought that the girl was still in love with her ex-fiancé.
“Then let’s get them together again!” Bess declared.
Nancy smiled. “But first, let’s solve the mystery. I want to show Mrs. Haver the lovely old hairpin I found.”
Knowing that their hostess always rested before dinner, Nancy waited until a few minutes before seven, then went to Mrs. Haver’s bedroom, and tapped lightly on the door. “Come in!” the woman called.
“Oh, how pretty you look!” she said, admiring Nancy’s powder-blue eyelet-embroidered dress.
“Thank you. Mrs. Haver, I have something to show you,” Nancy said. She told the woman of her discovery and held up the hairpin.
“Why, how strange—how very strange!” Without another word, Mrs. Haver rushed to her bureau, opened a drawer, and took out a jewel box. She rummaged through it and a few seconds later held up a hairpin very much like the one the young detective had found.
“For a moment I thought the one you had was mine, Nancy,” she said. “These two are almost identical. I wonder who could have dropped the other one.”
“So do I,” Nancy confided.
For the next ten minutes Nancy discussed the strange affair with Mrs. Haver, but neither could come to any conclusion. Finally the two walked down the stairs to dinner.
Donna Mae had completely recovered her composure. Her conversation was scintillating and the Northern girls were amazed that her attitude had changed so quickly and so completely.
Toward the end of the meal, Donna Mae smiled gaily and announced, “I have a wonderful surprise for you girls. Alex has invited all of us to New Orleans for a gala time tomorrow.”
Nancy, although she really would have preferred continuing her sleuthing, politely expressed her appreciation. She thought it advisable not to antagonize Donna Mae further. Bess said she was eager to see more of the city and eat at another famous restaurant.
George, for her part, was suspicious of Donna Mae’s motives. Later, as the girls were getting ready for bed, she said, “Nancy, we’d better take your car. This trip to town may be a trick to keep us there so late that we won’t be back in time to go to the Bartolomes’ for dinner.”
“You could be right, George,” Bess agreed. “But you know I just can’t figure out Donna Mae and the way she acts.”
George remarked with a great yawn, “Donna Mae just isn’t herself since Alex came into her life. I think it’s a shame!” The girl’s voice rose as she added, “She used to be such a swell person. Now she’s a pain!”
“S-sh!” Nancy warned. “She may hear you.”
The following morning Nancy awakened to a sunny day and the twittering chorus of birds. Going to a window, she stood there, breathing in the balmy, fragrant air and admiring the lovely gardens. Pappy Cole, a huge basket over his arm, was cutting flowers near the house.
As Nancy went into her friends’ room, the aroma of broiling ham and fresh-baked corncakes wafted upstairs. “Get up, you sleepyheads,” she said to Bess and George. “It’s simply heavenly outside! Let’s wear our skirt, blouse, and shorts sets today.”
“Will do,” George replied, jumping out of bed and making a beeline for the shower.
“Oh, don’t rush me,” Bess begged from her bed. “It’s too delicious a day to hurry.”
Nevertheless, the girls were dressed in half an hour and went downstairs. As soon as breakfast was over, the young people met in the driveway. Alex had the station wagon ready and hopped out to assist the passengers.
“Thank you,” said Nancy, “but Bess and George and I are going in my car. We’ll follow you.”
A look of annoyance creased the young man’s forehead. “But why?” he asked.
Bess put on an engaging smile. In a very convincing voice she said with a giggle, “You two sweetie pies ought to be alone.”
To avoid any further objection, the girls hurried to Nancy’s car. She followed Alex at a distance of about thirty feet all the way to New Orleans. Upon reaching the outskirts, she wondered why he did not go directly into the city. Instead, he turned and took a very circuitous route to reach the sight-seeing area.
“Nothing special here,” George complained. “Just a lot of old houses on a deserted street.”
At that moment a small wad of paper fluttered from Alex’s car window. Nancy, wondering whether he had dropped it by accident, decided on a sudden impulse to stop and retrieve the paper. She pulled to the curb and George hopped out to pick it up.
“This isn’t anything special,” George announced, climbing in and smoothing out the tiny sheet. “Just a funny drawing.”
The three girls gazed at a maroon-colored rectangle with a gold stripe running through it. There was no writing on the paper.
Alex had stopped and now backed up to see what was detaining Nancy. She handed the paper to him out her window. “Did you mean to drop this?” she asked.
“Oh, that!” said Alex. “A kid cousin of mine drew it. I just found it in my pocket. I don’t want it.” He tossed the paper into the street and started off again.
Once more Nancy followed Alex, but as he turned a corner she suddenly stopped the car. Opening the door, she got out.
“Quick, George, take the wheel!” she ordered. “I have some sleuthing to do. Meet you at twelve o’clock at Broussard’s restaurant.”
Mysteriously Nancy dashed back up the street.
CHAPTER XII
A Sly Getaway
“WHAT do you think Nancy is going to do?” Bess asked her cousin, as they drove on.
“Search me!” George answered. “But you can be sure it has something to do with that wad of paper.”
“You mean Nancy’s figured out that the drawing on it meant something important? And Alex wasn’t telling the truth when he said it had been drawn by a little cousin of his?”
“Something of the sort.” George grinned. “I can just see Alex’s face when we get to the parking lot. He’ll be furious.”
George’s prediction was right. Alex and Donna Mae got out of the station wagon and walked toward the spot where George was parking. Not seeing Nancy, Alex instantly asked where she was.
“Left us to do some sleuthing,” said George, as she and Bess alighted. “She told us to meet her at Broussard’s at twelve.”
Alex’s eyes flashed and Donna Mae looked hurt. “I don’t think that’s very nice of Nancy when we planned such a gay sight-seeing trip,” Donna Mae remarked.
“Well, after all, Nancy was invited down here to solve a mystery,” George defended her friend.
“I’m going to find her!” Alex said suddenly. He ran to the station wagon, got in, and roared out of the parking lot.
“And I’m going to follow,” George said to herself. She got behind the wheel of Nancy’s car and sped after the young man.
Donna Mae and Bess stared after the two cars. “Well, of all the horrid things to do!” Donna Mae cried out pettishly.
“What difference does it make?” Bess said soothingly. “You and I can have some fun shopping together.”
This did not appease Donna Mae, however. She insisted upon waiting at the parking lot. But when ten minutes had gone by and the others had not returned, she finally consented to leaving.
In the meantime, Nancy had run back to the spot where Alex had thrown the drawing into the street. Instinct urged her to find out more about the piece of paper.
To Nancy’s astonishment, the paper was gone!
“And there is no street cleaner or anyone else in sight,” Nancy murmured to herself.
Her latest suspicion that Alex was not entirely trustworthy instantly became stronger. It seemed as if the circuitous route into town might have had a real purpose behind it. Had Alex, by prearrangement, deliberately dropped the paper for someone to pick up?
Her mind racing, Nancy wondered if the paper might have been a signal, perhaps to a person in a house nearby.
“Maybe I’m being watched myself,” Nancy thought, and she was determined to find out what she could.
Standing exactly where the paper had been dropped, she studied the two facing houses on opposite sides of the street. Both were old-fashioned but well kept. Neither gave any outward indication of mysterious goings-on.
As Nancy stood reflecting what to do next, a young colored woman, with a market basket over her arm, came from one of the houses. Nancy stepped up to her and smiled.
“Would you mind answering a question?” she asked. “I’m a stranger in town—here for the Mardi Gras. This part of your city is quite unfamiliar to me and I’m looking for someone. Do you mind telling me who lives in the house where you work?”
The pretty young woman chuckled. “One of the finest families in New Orleans lives here. And this street used to be a nice quiet one. But now it’s noisy and all on account of the people from New York who live across the street.”
Instantly Nancy was interested. “A family from New York, you say?”
“Not a family,” the girl replied. “It’s a boardinghouse run by a woman who takes tourists sent by a New York travel agency. I shouldn’t gossip about our neighbors, but they’re not the kind of folks we’re used to around here. They’re loud and commonlike.”
Nancy expressed sympathy, then thanked the girl for the information.
“You’re welcome,” said the young woman and walked away.
“Tourists from New York,” Nancy repeated to herself. “Alex is from New York.”
Then another thought struck her. The car thief from the North might stay in this kind of place! Confused but eager to find out what she could, Nancy, on a hunch, opened the side gate of the property and hurried to the rear of the yard.
Several cars were parked there and Nancy went from one to another. Suddenly her heart began to beat faster. Near the side fence and backed against a hedge that separated the property from the house beside it stood a black convertible. It had black-and-red seat cushions!
Nancy excitedly opened the door to look at the carpet. Perhaps she could find out if it also was torn as hers had been!
Before she had a chance to look, the kitchen door of the house opened. A slovenly-looking woman, with unkempt hair, rushed outside and waved her fists at Nancy.
“What are you doing on my property!” she cried out. “I’ll have the police after you!”
Nancy quickly closed the car door. She memorized the number of the Louisiana license plate on it and said sweetly, “I’m looking for someone who has a car just like this. Would you mind telling me who owns this one?”
The woman did not reply to Nancy’s question. Instead, she gave the young sleuth a tongue-lashing about people who pried, and ordered her to leave the yard at once.
“Sorry,” said Nancy. “I’ll go.”
As she walked toward the street, the young detective glanced from window to window for any sign of the car thief but she saw no one.
“Nancy!” a voice called from the sidewalk. Turning, Nancy was surprised to see George and Alex standing there.
The young man scowled. “What are you going to do next,” he chided her.
“Get the police,” Nancy replied.
“The police!” Alex replied in astonishment.
“What’s up?” George wanted to know.
Nancy quickly explained about finding the car.
“We’ll all go to the police station,” Alex announced, adding that he would do all he could to help her.
“Suppose you and George go,” Nancy proposed. “If the man who stole my car is in this house, he may try to get away. I’ll stay here and watch.”
Alex hesitated, obviously reluctant to accept the suggestion, but finally remarked, “I suppose you’ll be all right alone,” and drove off with George in the station wagon.
Nancy went to sit in her own car and wait. Her eyes did not leave the house. Presently Alex and George returned in the station wagon. Behind them was a police car with two officers. While one of them remained on the sidewalk, the other hurried to the rear of the house with Nancy and her friends.
The black car was gone!
It was clear what had happened. The convertible had been backed through the hedge and driven out the adjoining property to the street beyond. Nancy berated herself for not having prevented the escape.
“Did you notice the license number?” the officer asked.
Nancy gave it to him, but said, “If the person who drove the car away is the same one who stole it in River Heights, he’ll substitute other license plates at once.”
“You’re no doubt right,” the policeman agreed. “I’ll alert headquarters immediately.”
The group returned to the sidewalk and the information was relayed to headquarters. Then one of the officers went with Nancy to interview the woman in the house.
When she answered the bell, the boardinghouse owner glared at Nancy. “You back?”
“We’d like to ask you a few questions,” the officer said, showing his identification. “Who owns the car that was driven away through the hedge?”
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