The Mystery at Lilac Inn (15 page)

The next moment Nancy was thrust violently forward through the door of a small cabin. She fell to the floor, and the door was slammed behind her. Simultaneously, the cruiser’s engine churned and the boat began moving. Despair engulfed Nancy.

Meanwhile, back in River Heights, Chief McGinnis had just received a phone call from the Dockville chief. He reported that the house Nancy had visited was empty. Neighbors had said that the three occupants, a husband and wife and a woman relative had rented the house. They had been quiet, and kept to themselves.

One woman neighbor had mentioned, however, that occasionally she heard hammering and drilling noises coming from the basement of the house. The police sergeant had checked and discovered some electronic equipment in the cellar, along with several books on navigation and skin diving.

“But we found a real prize in the garage,” the sergeant added. “The stolen truck that almost ran into Miss Drew! We’re keeping a stake-out on the house.”

Chief McGinnis had just hung up when a call came in from Carson Drew. “Chief,” the lawyer said tersely, “have you heard from Nancy?”

“Not since this afternoon. Why?”

The lawyer explained that he had just returned home, and telephoned the inn. He had learned from Miss Willoughby that Nancy had been missing for several hours. “Everyone, including the State Police, are out looking for her. Nancy’s convertible is still in the parking lot. Her canoe and diving equipment are still there.

“I don’t like this at all,” Carson Drew went on gravely. “I understand my daughter called you after talking with some actress who gave her a clue to the person who’s been posing as Nancy.”

“Yes, Nancy thinks her impersonator is an actress with a prison record. Her name is Gay Moreau.”

“Gay Moreau!” Carson Drew exclaimed. “Chief, if that girl’s responsible for Nancy’s disappearance, my daughter is in great danger!”

CHAPTER XIX

No Escape!

EVEN as Carson Drew made the pronouncement that Nancy’s life was in danger, his daughter was thinking the same thing. She was lying on the cabin floor where she had been thrown, and was trying to loosen the ropes which bound her.

Nancy glanced around the tiny cabin. It had two bunks, a table, and a chair. “Even if I could work myself free, there’s no escape route,” she thought.

The imprisoned girl looked toward the one tiny porthole. At this moment the cruiser began to roll heavily. The river must be getting rough.

Just then the cabin door was opened and Nancy felt a strong gust of wind. Jean Holmes entered the room and slammed the door shut. She gave Nancy a gloating look.

“Comfortable? Oh, I forgot. Our clever sleuth can’t talk.” The ex-waitress walked over and tore the cloth from Nancy’s mouth. The girl’s lips felt parched and dry.

Jean laughed mockingly. “I suppose you’d like a drink of water. Well, Carson Drew’s daughter can stay thirsty. Thanks to him,” she said bitterly, “I gave up most of the luxuries of life for quite a while!”

“Dad!” Nancy cried out. “What did he have to do with—” She broke off, suddenly recalling the waitress’s startled reaction when Nancy’s father had peered into the inn dining room. Nancy also remembered the Merriweathers’ story.

“I think I understand,” Nancy said. “It was my father who proved you were guilty of check forgery, Gay Moreau!”

The other girl seemed thunderstruck. But she quickly recovered her poise. “So you found out who I am. Well, it won’t do you any good.”

Gay’s tone was sinister. Nancy remained outwardly calm; at least, she could stall for time.

“You’re the girl who impersonated me in Burk’s Department Store,” the young detective accused. “Also, you played the parts of Jean Holmes and Mary Mason at Lilac Inn.”

“You can call me Gay now,” the girl sneered. “I had you fooled, though, didn’t I? But then, I was a good actress before I went to jail. Your father represented one of the persons whose checks I forged. I told him the day I was convicted I’d get revenge.”

Nancy nodded. “And you got your chance to do it by posing as Carson Drew’s daughter,” she said. “First you broke into our home and stole my charge plate, and the silver-framed picture to copy my appearance. You took a flowered dress of mine, too.”

“That’s right.” Gay tossed her head defiantly. “The mink stole, evening gowns, and watch will fit into my new social life.”

“And I suppose Emily’s diamonds will, too?” Nancy prodded.

Gay smiled triumphantly. “Yes, I have the real jewels, and Emily Willoughby has the fake ones. A tidy haul. They’re here in this cabin. We’ll sell them for a fancy price where we’ve disposed of a few other things.”

Gay began boasting of how the jewel theft had been accomplished. She said that after leaving jail she had not been able to find theatrical parts. Finally, she had forged references, and worked as Mary Mason for Mrs. Stonewell.

“After that,” Gay went on, “my brother-in-law Bud, Gil Gary, Frank, and their pals came up with a sharp idea of buying the sub to use on the Angus River so no one could spot the place we were using as a hide-out. And that was why Gil and I went to work at Lilac Inn. Never mind that part now. Anyhow, while I was there I overheard Mrs. Willoughby tell that woman Maud when she was going to present the diamonds. I decided to steal them at the party. Gil turned off the lights at the right moment.”

When Gil had phoned her that Nancy was at Lilac Inn, Gay said she had schemed her next move.

“To throw people off the track, I disguised myself as Jean Holmes and went to the Empire Employment Agency to ask for waitress work at Lilac Inn. What a break when I met Maud Potter there and got the job without registering at the agency.”

“So that’s why you came to the inn earlier for an interview,” Nancy interjected. “Later you sneaked back, and hid in the secret closet.”

“Yes. What made you guess
I
was the thief?”

Nancy explained about the lilac petals and other clues, including the note she had found which led her to Lillie Merriweather.

“Lillie!” Gay said scornfully. “Did she tell you that she was one of the people whose checks I forged?”

“No!” Nancy replied in amazement.

Gay sneered. “Lillie changed her mind and didn’t prosecute—always felt sorry for me and her dad did too. I liked him. In fact, I stole Mr. Daly’s blue pipe and mailed it to Mr. Merriweather. But Lillie’s had all the stage breaks! I hated her, but never let on!”

Nancy stared at Gay unbelievingly. The former actress certainly had a twisted outlook on life!

Now Gay said she had put the note to Lillie in an old apple tree for Frank to pick up and deliver. “But he didn’t come—that John McBride was always snooping around. He even found our shack, but not what was in it. I finally managed to sneak the note away when the policeman turned his back.”

“You decided,” said Nancy, “to throw suspicion away from yourself by implicating Maud Potter.”

“Sure,” Gay admitted. “Maud Potter was a natural for your suspicions. So I figured you might believe she was the one who put the diamond in your purse.
I
did that, and got a friend of mine to bump into you at a good moment.

“Also, I was the mysterious girl Helen saw in the grove. Gil was the one who knocked Miss Corning out. He got panicky when he saw her, and thought she might not be fooled by the ‘haunt’ idea.”

“And of course,” Nancy said dryly, “you and I met face to face in the grove.”

“You
were the ghostly figure who jumped out at me?” Gay said, surprised. Then she laughed. “Pretty good impersonator yourself.” She explained that on the night Nancy had encountered her, she had been in a hurry and forgotten to wear the dark wig.

Nancy’s bonds were biting into her skin painfully. But she gave no sign of this as she asked Gay, “Did you print on a paper a message about pruning ‘blue pipes’?”

“Yes. Bud told me to put it there for Gil. It meant the sub would arrive that night.” Gay said that “blue pipes” had been used as a signal in other ways. The flowers she, as Jean, had placed in the dining-room window meant “Watch out for sleuths.” Gay admitted also that the gang had tapped the inn’s telephone wires after “Mary Mason” had left.

At that moment the cabin door opened. A man Nancy had not yet seen stood there. He was tall and dark, with thin features.

Gay introduced him as Simon, her fiancé. “You talk too much, Gay,” he growled.

Ignoring Nancy, he added, “It’s very foggy and the water’s getting rougher. Frank and Gil are watching for patrol boats. Bud’s steering.”

Simon left. Gay then opened a large make-up kit. She took out two wigs. “Watch this,” she told Nancy proudly.

The actress pulled off the brown wig she was wearing and put on a reddish-blond hairpiece. Then she applied long eyelashes and heavy rouge and lipstick.

“Meet Mary!” she said.

Nancy did not comment. Instead, she asked, “Did one of your pals throw a rock at my car?”

“Yes, as a warning, but you ignored it,” Gay replied. “I knew through Gil you were suspicious. We were ready in case you hit Dockville.”

Gay removed her Mary Mason make-up. “And now, meet your double, Nancy Drew!” she said dramatically.

The captive sleuth watched as Gay deftly arranged her hair like Nancy’s. Then, with eyebrow pencil and other cosmetics, transformed her face. Nancy had to admit the resemblance was striking.

“Incidentally,” said Gay, “thanks for the loan of your pink dress. Wish I could have kept the date with that handsome John McBride.”

“Tell me, who was responsible for the message phoned to Anna?” Nancy asked.

“Bud. He’s a good mimic,” Gay bragged. “And our skin diver threw the spear at you when Frank signaled.”

“Whose idea was it to place the time Bomb?”

“Mine,” Gay replied. “But Gil put it in the cottage.”

Gay now admitted that Bud’s midget submarine was the object which had capsized the girls’ canoe. He and Simon had been in the craft and were practicing a partial ascent as the girls passed over it.

“That was really just an accident,” Gay added.

Nancy’s mind dwelled on the submarine. Was it also part of Bud’s “sharp idea”? She could get no answer from Gay about this.

The actress did admit that the gang was responsible for breaking in and turning on the phonograph record, stealing the lilac tree, and digging the hole into which Hank had fallen. They had also caused the inn to quake by using a strong vibrating machine against the cellar wall, then running off with it before being detected.

All these things had been done, Gay said, to make Emily and Dick close the inn and keep Nancy and the others from detecting the gang’s project until they were finished in this locale and could make a getaway to another spot. “We knew you were finding out too much,” Gay told Nancy. “So we had to act fast. The trouble was, nothing made you get out!”

On a sudden hunch, Nancy queried, “Does this other project of yours have to do with the missing tools?”

Gay hesitated. “That’s something you’ll have to figure out.”

Just then, the boat dipped sharply. Gay clutched her stomach. “Oh, I feel terrible!” she cried, her face a grayish green. “I think I’m sea-sick!”

The impersonator slumped into a bunk. Nancy’s eyes darted around the cabin, trying to guess where the diamonds might be. Certainly not in any of the obvious places. Her glance lingered on a wall barometer. This would be an ideal spot if its back were hollow!

Then the cabin door opened and Gil entered. “What’s the matter with you, Gay?” he said roughly. “C’mon. We’re headin’ for shore till this blows over and the fog lifts.”

“Oh, leave me alone!” Gay said irritably. “I’m ill.”

The next moment there was a crash and the sound of splintering wood. Nancy was hurled headlong across the cabin, and Gil and Gay were flung to the floor. They heard cries from outside and someone shouting, “About, Bud!
About!”

Gil was the first to recover from the crash. He dashed out of the cabin. In a minute he was back with Simon.

“We struck a log!” Simon gasped. “We’re sinking! And there’s a fire in the engine!”

“Besides, some boat’s approaching!” Gil added. “Might be a patrol. Frank and the others have jumped over. We’re scramming too, in the sub.”

“Get up, Gay!” Simon ordered.

But the former actress, chalk-white, seemed unable to move. Simon rushed over and yanked the actress to her feet.

“The diamonds!” Gay screeched. “We can’t forget them!”

“We can’t be caught with loot,” Simon argued. “We’ll skin-dive for the diamonds later.” He glanced toward Nancy. “I’d better cut her loose.”

The man groped in his pocket for a knife, but Gay stopped him. “Don’t be a fool!” she hissed. “If she drowns, we can’t be blamed. Good-by, Nancy Drew!”

The trio raced from the cabin. Nancy, bound and helpless, was left alone in the sinking ship.

CHAPTER XX

Nancy’s Citation

UNTIL now, Nancy had not fully believed that her captors would let her perish. But she was left, bound hand and foot, aboard a sinking vessel!

Suddenly Nancy sniffed the acrid smell of smoke —the fire was spreading! She screamed for help until her throat was hoarse. Then, about to faint, Nancy heard an answering shout, and the sound of a boat pulling up outside the porthole.

“Oh, thank goodness,” she breathed fervently.

Shortly, two men in River Police Patrol uniforms hurried into the cabin. They quickly untied Nancy and carried her on deck. She saw that the fog had thinned and that the cruiser’s stem was aflame. Desperately she tried to tell the men of the escaped gang, and what had happened.

“No time to talk now!” one of them urged.

The patrol boat stood near the bow of the cruiser, which was almost submerged. Nancy and the men quickly transferred to the other boat.

As the patrol craft pulled away, giant searchlights played over the surrounding waters. Captain Morgan, head of the patrol, came up beside Nancy in time to see the burning cruiser go under. Emily Willoughby’s precious diamonds would soon be on the river bottom.