The Hidden Staircase (11 page)
Read The Hidden Staircase Online
Authors: Carolyn Keene
Tags: #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Mansions, #Mystery & Detective, #Juvenile Fiction, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Braille Books, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Adventures and Adventurers, #Mystery Fiction, #Women Sleuths, #Children's Stories, #Drew; Nancy (Fictitous Character), #Haunted Houses, #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Mystery Stories, #General, #Nancy Drew, #Mystery and Detective Stories
In a moment Nancy smiled wanly. “I remember now. The ceiling fell down.”
“Yes,” said Helen. “It knocked you out for a few moments. I hope you’re not hurt.”
Miss Flora, who was still sneezing violently, insisted that they all get out of the dust at once. She began stepping across the piles of debris, with Helen helping her. When they reached the library door, the elderly woman went inside.
Helen returned to help Nancy. But by this time her friend was standing up, leaning on Aunt Rosemary’s arm. She was able to make her way across the hall to the library. Aunt Rosemary suggested calling a doctor, but Nancy said this would not be necessary.
“I’m so thankful you girls weren’t seriously hurt,” Miss Flora said. “What a dreadful thing this is! Do you think the ghost is responsible?”
Her daughter replied at once. “No, I don’t. Mother, you will recall that for some time we have had a leak in the hall whenever it rained. And the last time we had a storm, the whole ceiling was soaked. I think that weakened the plaster and it fell of its own accord.”
Miss Flora remarked that a new ceiling would be a heavy expense for them. “Oh dear, more troubles all the time. But I still don’t want to part with my home.”
Nancy, whose faculties by now were completely restored, said with a hint of a smile, “Well, there’s one worry you might not have any more, Miss Flora.”
“What’s that?”
“Mr. Gomber,” said Nancy, “may not be so interested in buying this property when he sees what happened.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Aunt Rosemary spoke up. “He’s pretty persistent.”
Nancy said she felt all right now and suggested that she and Helen start cleaning up the hall.
Miss Flora would not hear of this. “Rosemary and I are going to help,” she said determinedly.
Cartons were brought from the cellar and one after the other was filled with the debris. After it had all been carried outdoors, mops and dust cloths were brought into use. Within an hour all the gritty plaster dust had been removed.
The weary workers had just finished their job when the telephone rang. Nancy, being closest to the instrument, answered it. Hannah Gruen was calling.
“Nancy! What happened?” she asked. “I’ve been waiting over an hour for you to call me back. What’s the matter?”
Nancy gave her all the details.
“What’s going to happen to you next?” the housekeeper exclaimed.
The young sleuth laughed. “Something good. I hope.”
She asked Hannah to look for her copy of the
River Heights Gazette
of the Tuesday before. In a few minutes the housekeeper brought it to the phone and Nancy asked her to turn to page fourteen. “That has the classified ads,” she said. “Now tell me what the ad is right in the center of the page.”
River Heights Gazette
of the Tuesday before. In a few minutes the housekeeper brought it to the phone and Nancy asked her to turn to page fourteen. “That has the classified ads,” she said. “Now tell me what the ad is right in the center of the page.”
“Do you mean the one about used cars?”
“That must be it,” Nancy replied. “That’s not in my paper.”
Hannah Gruen said it was an ad for Aken’s, a used-car dealer. “He’s at 24 Main Street in Hancock.”
“And now turn the page and tell me what ad is on the back of it,” Nancy requested.
“It’s a story about a school picnic,” Hannah told her. “Does either one of them help you?”
“Yes, Hannah, I believe you’ve given me just the information I wanted. This may prove to be valuable. Thanks a lot.”
After Nancy had finished the call, she started to dial police headquarters, then changed her mind. The ghost might be hiding somewhere in the house to listen—or if he had installed microphones at various points, any conversations could be picked up and recorded on a machine a distance away.
“It would be wiser for me to discuss the whole matter in person with the police, I’m sure,” Nancy decided.
Divulging her destination only to Helen, she told the others she was going to drive downtown but would not be gone long.
“You’re sure you feel able?” Aunt Rosemary asked her.
“I’m perfectly fine,” Nancy insisted.
She set off in the convertible, hopeful that through the clue of the used-car dealer, the police might be able to pick up the name of one of the suspects.
“They can track him down and through the man locate my father!”
CHAPTER XIV
An Urgent Message
“EXCELLENT!” Captain Rossland said after Nancy had told her story. He smiled. “The way you’re building up clues, if you were on my force, I’d recommend a citation for you!”
The young sleuth smiled and thanked him. “I must find my father,” she said earnestly,
“I’ll call Captain McGinnis of the River Heights force at once,” the officer told her. “Why don’t you sit down here and wait? It shouldn’t take long for them to get information from Aken’s used-car lot.”
Nancy agreed and took a chair in a corner of the captain’s office. Presently he called to her.
“I have your answer, Miss Drew.”
She jumped up and went over to his desk. The officer told her that Captain McGinnis in River Heights had been most co-operative. He had sent two men at once to Aken’s used-car lot. They had just returned with a report.
“Day before yesterday an athletic-looking man with a crinkly ear came there and purchased a car. He showed a driver’s license stating that he was Samuel Greenman from Huntsville.”
Nancy was excited over the information. “Then it will be easy to pick him up, won’t it?” she asked.
“I’m afraid not,” Captain Rossland replied. “McGinnis learned from the Huntsville police that although Greenman is supposed to live at the address he gave, he is reported to have been out of town for some time.”
“Then no one knows where he is?”
“Not any of his neighbors.”
The officer also reported that Samuel Greenman was a person of questionable character. He was wanted on a couple of robbery charges, and police in several states had been alerted to be on the lookout for him.
“Well, if the man I saw at my car is Samuel Greenman, then maybe he’s hiding in this area.”
Captain Rossland smiled. “Are you going to suggest next that he is the ghost at Twin Elms?”
“Who knows?” Nancy countered.
“In any case,” Captain Rossland said, “your idea that he may be hiding out around here is a good one.”
Nancy was about to ask the officer another question when his phone rang. A moment later he said, “It’s for you, Miss Drew.”
The girl detective picked up the receiver and said, “Hello.” The caller was Helen Corning and her voice sounded frantic.
“Oh, Nancy, something dreadful has happened here! You must come home at once!”
“What it it?” Nancy cried out, but Helen had already put down the instrument at her end.
Nancy told Captain Rossland of the urgent request and said she must leave at once.
“Let me know if you need the police,” the officer called after her.
“Thank you, I will.”
Nancy drove to Twin Elms as fast as the law allowed. As she pulled up in front of the house, she was startled to see a doctor’s car there. Someone had been taken ill!
Helen met her friend at the front door. “Nancy,” she said in a whisper, “Miss Flora may have had a heart attack!”
“How terrible!” Nancy said, shocked. “Tell me all about it.”
“Dr. Morrison wants Miss Flora to go to the hospital right away, but she refuses. She says she won’t leave here.”
Helen said that the physician was still upstairs attending her great-grandmother.
“When did she become ill?” Nancy asked. “Did something in particular bring on the attack?”
Helen nodded. “Yes. It was very frightening. Miss Flora, Aunt Rosemary, and I were in the kitchen talking about supper. They wanted to have a special dish to surprise you, because they knew you were dreadfully upset.”
“That was sweet of them,” Nancy remarked. “Please go on, Helen.”
“Miss Flora became rather tired and Aunt Rosemary suggested that she go upstairs and lie down. She had just started up the stairway, when, for some unknown reason, she turned to look back. There, in the parlor, stood a man!”
“A caller?” Nancy questioned.
“Oh, no!” Helen replied. “Miss Flora said he was an ugly, horrible-looking person. He was unshaven and his hair was kind of long.”
“Do you think he was the ghost?” Nancy inquired.
“Miss Flora thought so. Well, she didn’t scream. You know, she’s really terribly brave. She just decided to go down and meet him herself. And then, what do you think?”
“I could guess any number of things,” Nancy replied. “What did happen?”
Helen said that when Mrs. Turnbull had reached the parlor, no one was in it! “And there was no secret door open.”
“What did Miss Flora do then?” Nancy asked.
“She fainted.”
At this moment a tall, slender, gray-haired man, carrying a physician’s bag, walked down the stairs to the front hall. Helen introduced Nancy to him, then asked about the patient.
“Well, fortunately, Miss Flora is going to be all right,” said Dr. Morrison. “She is an amazing woman. With complete rest and nothing more to worry her, I believe she will be all right. In fact, she may be able to be up for short periods by this time tomorrow.”
“Oh, I’m so relieved,” said Helen. “I’m terribly fond of my great-grandmother and I don’t want anything to happen to her.”
The physician smiled. “I’ll do all I can, but you people will have to help.”
“How can we do that?” Nancy asked quickly.
The physician said that no one was to talk about the ghost. “Miss Flora says that she saw a man in the parlor and that he must have come in by some secret entrance. Now you know, as well as I do, that such a thing is not plausible.”
“But the man couldn’t have entered this house any other way,” Helen told him quickly. “Every window and door on this first floor is kept locked.”
The doctor raised his eyebrows. “You’ve heard of hallucinations?” he asked.
Nancy and Helen frowned, but remained silent. They were sure that Miss Flora had not had an hallucination. If she had said there was a man in the parlor, then one had been there!
“Call me if you need me before tomorrow morning,” the doctor said as he moved toward the front door. “Otherwise I’ll drop in some time before twelve.”
After the medic had left, the two girls ex changed glances. Nancy said, “Are you game to search the parlor again?”
“You bet I am,” Helen responded. “Shall we start now or wait until after supper?”
Although Nancy was eager to begin at once, she thought that first she should go upstairs and extend her sympathy to Miss Flora. She also felt that a delay in serving her supper while the search went on might upset the ill woman. Helen offered to go into the kitchen at once and start preparing the meal. Nancy nodded and went up the steps.
Miss Flora had been put to bed in her daughter’s room to avoid any further scares from the ghost, who seemed to operate in the elderly woman’s own room.
“Miss Flora, I’m so sorry you have to stay in bed,” said Nancy, walking up and smiling at the patient.
“Well, I am too,” Mrs. Turnbull replied. “And I think it’s a lot of nonsense. Everybody faints once in a while. If you’d ever seen what I did—that horrible face!”
“Mother!” pleaded Aunt Rosemary, who was seated in a chair on the other side of the bed. “You know what the doctor said.”
“Oh, these doctors!” her mother said pettishly. “Anyway, Nancy, I’m sure I saw the ghost. Now you just look for a man who hasn’t shaved in goodness knows how long and has an ugly face and kind of longish hair.”
It was on the tip of Nancy’s tongue to ask for information on the man’s height and size, but recalling the doctor’s warning, she said nothing about this. Instead, she smiled and taking one of Miss Flora’s hands in her own, said:
“Let’s not talk any more about this until you’re up and well. Then I’ll put you on the Drew and Company detective squad!”
The amusing remark made the elderly woman smile and she promised to try getting some rest.
“But first I want something to eat,” she demanded. “Do you think you girls can manage alone? I’d like Rosemary to stay here with me.”
“Of course we can manage, and we’ll bring you exactly what you should have to eat.”
Nancy went downstairs and set up a tray for Miss Flora. On it was a cup of steaming chicken bouillon, a thin slice of well-toasted bread, and a saucer of plain gelatin.
A few minutes later Helen took another tray upstairs with a more substantial meal on it for Aunt Rosemary. Then the two girls sat down in the dining room to have their own supper. After finishing it, they quickly washed and dried all the dishes, then started for the parlor.
“Where do you think we should look?” Helen whispered.
During the past half hour Nancy had been going over in her mind what spot in the parlor they might have overlooked—one which could possibly have an opening behind it. She had decided on a large cabinet built into the wall. It contained a beautiful collection of figurines, souvenirs from many places, and knickknacks of various kinds.
“I’m going to look for a hidden spring that may move the cabinet away from the wall,” Nancy told Helen in a low voice.
For the first time she noticed that each of the figurines and knickknacks were set in small depressions on the shelves. Nancy wondered excitedly if this had been done so that the figurines would not fall over in case the cabinet were moved.
Eagerly she began to look on the back wall of the interior of the cabinet for a spring. She and Helen together searched every inch of the upper part but found no spring to move the great built-in piece of furniture.
On the lower part of the cabinet were two doors which Nancy had already opened many times. But then she had been looking for a large opening. Now she was hoping to locate a tiny spring or movable panel.
Helen searched the left side, while Nancy took the right. Suddenly her pulse quickened in anticipation. She had felt a spot slightly higher than the rest.
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