The Hidden Staircase (14 page)

Her gaze now turned to Riverview Manor. The grounds there were overgrown with weeds and several shutters were missing from the house. Suddenly Nancy’s attention was drawn to one of the uncovered windowpanes. Did she see a light moving inside?

It disappeared a moment later and Nancy could not be sure. Pci haps the sun shining on the glass had created an optical illusion.

“Still, somebody just might be in that house,” the young sleuth thought. “The sooner I get over there and scc what I can find out, the better! If the ghost is hiding out there, maybe he uses some underground passage from one of the outbuildings on the property.”

She crawled cautiously back to the trap door and together the girls closed it. Aunt Rosemary had already gone downstairs to take care of her mother.

Nancy told Helen what she thought she had just seen in the neighboring mansion. “I’ll change my clothes right away. Then let’s go see Mr. Dodd, the realtor broker for Riverview Manor.”

A half hour later the two girls walked into the real-estate office. Mr. Dodd himself was there and Nancy asked him about looking at Riverview Manor.

“I’m sorry, miss,” he said, “but the house has just been sold.”

Nancy was stunned. She could see all her plans crumbling into nothingness. Then a thought came to her. Perhaps the new owner would not object if she looked around, anyway.

“Would you mind telling me, Mr. Dodd, who purchased Riverview Manor?”

“Not at all,” the realtor replied. “A man named Nathan Gomber.”

CHAPTER XVIII

A Confession

NANCY DREW’s face wore such a disappointed look that Mr. Dodd, the realtor, said kindly, “Don’t take it so hard, miss. I don’t think you’d be particularly interested in Riverview Manor. It’s really not in very good condition. Besides, you’d need a pile of money to fix that place up.”

Without commenting on his statement, Nancy asked, “Couldn’t you possibly arrange for me to see the inside of the mansion?”

Mr. Dodd shook his head. “I’m afraid Mr. Gomber wouldn’t like that.”

Nancy was reluctant to give up. Why, her father might even be a prisoner in that very house! “Of course I can report my suspicion to the police,” the young sleuth thought.

She decided to wait until morning. Then, if there was still no news of Mr. Drew, she would pass along the word to Captain Rossland.

Mr. Dodd’s telephone rang. As he answered it, Nancy and Helen started to leave his office. But he immediately waved them back.

“The call is from Chief Rossland, Miss Drew,” he said. “He phoned Twin Elms and learned you were here. He wants to see you at once.”

“Thank you,” said Nancy, and the girls left.

They hurried to police headquarters, wondering why the officer wanted to speak to Nancy.

“Oh, if only it’s news of Dad,” she exclaimed fervently. “But why didn’t he get in touch with me himself?”

“I don’t want to be a killjoy,” Helen spoke up. “But maybe it’s not about your father at all. Perhaps they’ve caught Nathan Gomber.”

Nancy parked in front of headquarters and the two girls hurried inside the building. Captain Rossland was expecting them and they were immediately ushered into his office. Nancy introduced Helen Corning.

“I won’t keep you in suspense,” the officer said, watching Nancy’s eager face. “We have arrested Samuel Greenman!”

“The crinkly-eared man?” Helen asked.

“That’s right,” Captain Rossland replied. “Thanks to your tip about the used car, Miss Drew, our men had no trouble at all locating him.”

The officer went on to say, however, that the prisoner refused to confess that he had had anything to do with Mr. Drew’s disappearance. “Furthermore, Harry the taxi driver—we have him here -insists that he cannot positively iden. tify Greenman as one of the passengers in his cab. We believe Harry is scared that Greenman’s pals will beat him up or attack members of his family.”

“Harry did tell me,” Nancy put in, “that his passenger had threatened harm to his family unless he forgot all about what he had seen.”

“That proves our theory,” Captain Rossland stated with conviction. “Miss Drew, we think you can help the police.”

“I’ll be glad to. How?”

Captain Rossland smiled. “You may not know it, but you’re a very persuasive young lady. I be. lieve that you might be able to get information out of both Harry and Greenman, where we nave failed.”

After a moment’s thought, Nancy rcplied modestly, “I’ll be happy to try, but on one condition.” She grinned at the officer, “I must talk to these men alone.”

“Request granted.” Captain Rossland smiled. He added that he and Helen would wait outside and he would have Harry brought in.

“Good luck,” said Helen as she and the captain left the room.

A few moments later Harry walked in alone. “Oh hello, miss,” he said to Nancy, barely raising his eyes from the floor.

“Won’t you sit down, Harry,” Nancy asked, in. dicating a chair alongside hers. “It was nice of the captain to let me talk to you.”

Harry scated himself, but said nothing. He twisted his driver’s cap nervously in his hands and kept his gaze downward.

“Harry,” Nancy began, “I guess your children would feel terrible if you were kidnaped.”

“It would cut ’em to pieces,” the cabman stated emphatically.

“Then you know how I feel,” Nancy went on. “Not a word from my father for two whole days. If your children knew somebody who’d seen the person who kidnaped you, wouldn’t they feel bad if the man wouldn’t talk?”

Harry at last raised his eyes and looked straight at Nancy. “I get you, miss. When somethin’ comes home to you, it makes all the difference in the world. You win! I I can identify that scoundrel Greenman, and I will. Call the captain in.”

Nancy did not wait a second. She opened the door and summoned the officer.

“Harry has something to tell you,” Nancy said to Captain Rossland.

“Yeah,” said Harry, “I’m not goin’ to hold out any longer, I admit Greenman had me scared, but he’s the guy who rode in my cab, then ordered me to keep my mouth shut after that other pas. senger blacked out.”

Captain Rossland looked astounded. It was evident he could hardly believe that Nancy in only a few minutes had persuaded the man to talk!

“And now,” Nancy asked, “may I talk to your prisoner?”

“I’ll have you taken to his cell,” the captain responded, and rang for a guard.

Nancy was led down a corridor, past a row of cells until they came to one where the man with the crinkled ear sat on a cot.

“Greenman,” said the guard, “step up here. This is Miss Nancy Drew, daughter of the kidnaped man. She wants to talk to you.”

The prisoner shuffled forward, but mumbled, “I ain’t goin’ to answer no questions.”

Nancy waited until the guard had moved off, then she smiled at the prisoner. “We all make mistakes at times,” she said. “We’re often misled by people who urge us to do things we shouldn’t. Maybe you’re afraid you’ll receive the death sentence for helping to kidnap my father. But if you didn’t realize the seriousness of the whole thing, the complaint against you may turn out just to be conspiracy.”

To Nancy’s astonishment, Greenman suddenly burst out, “You’ve got me exactly right, miss. I had almost nothing to do with takin’ your father away. The guy I was with—he’s the old-timer. He’s got a long prison record. I haven’t. Honest, miss, this is my first offense.

“I’ll tell you the whole story. I met this guy only Monday night. He sure sold me a bill of goods. But all I did was see that your pop didn’t run away. The old-timer’s the one that drugged him.”

“Where is my father now?” Nancy interrupted.

“I don’t know. Honest I don‘t,” Greenman insisted. “Part of the plan was for somebody to follow the taxi. After a while Mr. Drew was to be given a whiff of somethin’. It didn’t have no smell. That’s why our taxi driver didn’t catch on. And it didn’t knock the rest of us out, ’cause you have to put the stuff right under a fellow’s nose to make it work.”

“And the person who was following in a car and took my father away, who is he?”

“I don’t know,” the prisoner answered, and Nancy felt that he was telling the truth.

“Did you get any money for doing this?” Nancy asked him.

“A little. Not as much as it was worth, especially if I have to go to prison. The guy who paid us for our work was the one in the car who took your father away.”

“Will you describe him?” Nancy requested.

“Sure. Hope the police catch him soon. He’s in his early fifties—short and heavy-set, pale, and has kind of watery blue eyes.”

Nancy asked the prisoner if he would dictate the same confession for the police and the man nodded. “And I’m awful sorry I caused all this worry, miss. I hope you find your father soon and I wish I could help you more. I guess I am a coward. I’m too scared to tell the name of the guy who talked me into this whole thing. He’s really a bad actar-na tellin’ what’d happen to me if I gave his name.”

The young sleuth felt that she had obtained all the information she possibly could from the man. She went back to Captain Rossland, who for the second time was amazed by the girl’s success. He called a stenographer. Then he said good-by to Nancy and Helen and went off toward Greenman’s cell.

On the way back to Twin Elms, Helen congratulated her friend. “Now that one of the kidnapers has been caught, I’m sure that your father will be found soon, Nancy. Who do you suppose the man was who took your father from Greenman and his friend?”

Nancy looked puzzled, then answered, “We know from his description that he wasn’t Gomber. But, Helen, a hunch of mine is growing stronger all the time that he’s back of this whole thing. And putting two and two together, I believe it was Willie Wharton who drove that car.

“And I also believe Wharton’s the one who’s been playing ghost, using masks at times—like the gorilla and the unshaven, long-haired man.

“Somehow he gets into the mansion and listens to conversations. He heard that I was going to be asked to solve the mystery at Twin Elms and told Gomber. That’s why Gomber came to our home and tried to keep me from coming here by saying I should stick close to Dad.”

“That’s right,” said Helen. “And when he found that didn’t work, he had Willie and Greenman and that other man kidnap your dad. He fig ured it would surely get you away from Twin Elms. He wanted to scare Miss Flora into selling the property, and he thought if you were around you might dissuade her.”

“But in that I didn’t succeed,” said Nancy a bit forlornly. “Besides, they knew Dad could stop those greedy land owners from forcing the railroad to pay them more for their property. That’s why I’m sure Gomber and Wharton won’t release him until after they get what they want.”

Helen laid a hand on Nancy’s shoulder. “I’m so terribly sorry about this. What can we do next?”

“Somehow I have a feeling, Helen,” her friend replied, “that you and I are going to find Willie Wharton before very long. And if we do, and I find out he really signed that contract of sale, I want certain people to be around.”

“Who?” Helen asked, puzzled.

“Mr. Barradale, the lawyer, and Mr. Watson the notary public.”

The young sleuth put her thought into action. Knowing that Monday was the deadline set by the railroad, she determined to do her utmost before that time to solve the complicated mystery. Back at Twin Elms, Nancy went to the telephone and put in a call to Mr. Barradale’s office. She did not dare mention Gomber’s or Willie Wharton’s name for fear one or the other of them might be listening. She merely asked the young lawyer if he could possibly come to Cliffwood and bring with him whatever he felt was necessary for him to win his case.

“I think I understand what you really mean to say,” he replied. “I take it you can’t talk freely. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll ask the questions. You want me to come to the address that you gave us the other day?”

“Yes. About noon.”

“And you’d like me to bring along the contract of sale with Willie Wharton’s signature?”

“Yes. That will be fine.” Nancy thanked him and hung up.

Turning from the telephone, she went to find Helen and said, “There’s still lots of daylight. Even though we can’t get inside Riverview Manor, we can hunt through the outbuildings over there for the entrance to an underground passage to this house.”

“All right,” her friend agreed. “But this time you do the searching. I’ll be the lookout.”

Nancy chose the old smokehouse of Riverview Manor first, since this was closest to the Twin Elms property line. It yielded no clue and she moved on to the carriage house. But neither in this building, nor any of the others, did the girl detective find any indication of entrances to an underground passageway. Finally she gave up and rejoined Helen.

“If there is an opening, it must be from inside Riverview Manor,” Nancy stated. “Oh, Helen, it’s exasperating not to be able to get in there!”

“I wouldn’t go in there now in any case,” Helen remarked. “It’s way past suppertime and I’m starved. Besides, pretty soon it’ll be dark.”

The girls returned to Twin Elms and ate supper. A short time later someone banged the front-door knocker. Both girls went to the door. They were amazed to find that the caller was Mr. Dodd, the realtor. He held out a large brass key toward Nancy.

“What’s this for?” she asked, mystified,

Mr. Dodd smiled.

“It’s the front-door key to Riverview Manor. I’ve decided that you can look around the mansion tomorrow morning all you please.”

CHAPTER XIX

The Hidden Staircase

SEEING the look of delight on Nancy’s face, Mr. Dodd laughed. “Do you think that house is haunted as well as this one?” he asked. “I hear you like to solve mysteries.”

“Yes, I do.” Not wishing to reveal her real purpose to the realtor, the young sleuth also laughed. “Do you think I might find a ghost over there?” she countered.