037 Last Dance (5 page)

• • •

Nancy told George and Bess about the call the minute she’d picked them up at Bess’s house.

“You’ve got to tell the police the whole story,” Bess told Nancy. “First the slashed tires and now a threatening message on your answering machine.
Not to mention Laurie’s noose. This is getting dangerous, Nan.”

Nancy thought over what Bess had said while they picked their way through the crowd on the beach. Ned wasn’t there yet, but Nancy did spot Laurie. Apparently she and Jon had ironed out their differences, because they were together. She recognized several of the waitresses from Moves, including Pam. Adam Boyd was hovering off to the side, watching Laurie and Jon with a venomous expression on his face.

Bess and George had stopped to greet friends, but Nancy, anxious to dive in, took off by herself. She dove from a pier and cut through the water in a sleek dive. She started to pull herself back to the surface with strong strokes.

But just as she should have reached the top, Nancy felt strong fingers grip her ankles and draw her back down to the bottom.

For a moment Nancy was too startled to be scared. Then as she was dragged deeper, her lungs began to burn with the need for oxygen. She tried to see her attacker, but the water was too murky, and she could make out nothing more than a slim, quick-moving shadow beneath her.

Nancy kicked hard, but couldn’t free herself. Her mouth and nose were filling with water. She flailed her arms in an effort to reach the surface. No use.

She was going to drown!

W
ITH HER LAST BREATH
, Nancy folded over into a sharp jackknife to reach down to try to break the grip on her ankles. Just then whoever had been grasping her ankles let go. And just as suddenly solid hands grabbed her waist and propelled her to the surface.

Sunlight and air rushed at Nancy when her head broke the surface of the water. Gasping and choking, she found herself looking into Ned’s eyes.

“Somebody—somebody was pulling me down—” Nancy choked out the words.

After Ned helped her back onto the pier, she lay panting to catch her breath.

Out of the corner of her eye, Nancy saw Jon walking out of the lake, and down farther Adam Boyd. Either of them, or any of dozens of swimmers, could have been her attacker.

Seeing that Nancy would be all right, Ned said, “I’ve got to watch you every minute.” Nancy wasn’t fooled by his teasing tone. He’d been almost as scared as she was. “Turn my back on you for a day and what do you do? You almost drown.”

Nancy laughed and kissed him, glad to be alive, glad that Ned was with her. She still felt a little shaky. “Thanks for the help, Nickerson,” she retorted with a forced grin. “You have this great habit of showing up just in the nick of time.”

They walked on the pier back to the beach, where Nancy spread her towel on the sand and lay back to let the sun warm her. Ned found his towel and joined her.

“What happened out there?” he asked in a quiet voice. There were lots of people around but none close enough to overhear.

Nancy drew in a deep breath—even now, she felt she needed extra air. “All I know is that someone must have been right behind me when I dove in. Before I could break the surface, he’d
grabbed my ankles and pulled me down to the bottom.”

“You didn’t see anything?”

She shook her head. “Too murky. What about you—how did you happen to rescue me?”

Ned touched the back of her neck in a tender gesture. “I got to the lake in time to see you go in, and when you didn’t come up when you should have, I got worried. There was no one behind you, Nan. He must have been waiting just under the surface.”

“You didn’t see him when you were down there, either?” Nancy asked.

“Only a flutter of legs and churning water as he swam away. Whoever it was probably had decided to let you go just then. After all, he had to be needing air as much as you.”

Nancy nodded her agreement. She’d had a good scare, but now she began to think the incident might have only been a warning. She let out a long breath. “I suppose it was the same person who left the message on the answering machine.”

Ned cupped his hand under Nancy’s chin. “What message?” he asked, frowning.

Nancy told him about the telephone threat.

“The voice wasn’t at all familiar? Was it male? Female?”

Nancy sighed. “I couldn’t tell—it sounded
mechanical. It could have been a woman, I guess. It was pretty distorted.”

“This is getting really nasty,” Ned said.

Nancy agreed But for Laurie’s sake, as well as her own, she had to find out what was happening and who was behind it all.

“You’ll be careful, won’t you, Nan?” Ned asked, his eyes troubled. “I suppose you wouldn’t give up the case—even if I said ‘pretty please.’ ”

Nancy smiled. “I’ll be very careful” was all she’d promise. She was already planning the next phase of her investigation.

Several hours later, after telling Ned she was going home to rest, Nancy showered and changed into dressy black pants, a tuxedo-style white shirt, and wide dark green belt. She looked up the number of Moves and dialed it from the phone in her bedroom after her hair was done. She and George and Bess had cooked up a plan on their way home from the lake.

“Moves,” a masculine voice answered. “This is Jon.”

“Jon, this is Nancy—Nancy Drew.”

He sounded surprised. “Nancy, hi. What can I do for you?”

“The other night at dinner, you mentioned you were shorthanded at the club,” she said.

“I could use a few more waitresses,” he agreed. Now there was real curiosity in his voice. “Why?”

Nancy turned the phone cord around her index finger, “I’m looking for a job, Jon. How about giving me a chance to wait tables at Moves?”

He was silent. Nancy jumped in again before Jon could draw too many conclusions. “I want to buy my dad a birthday present,” she said in an earnest voice. “And it’s important to me to use my own money.”

“Have you had any experience?” Jon wanted to know.

Nancy rolled her eyes, but her voice held a sweet note. “Of course I have,” she said.

Jon hesitated for a second, then said, “Okay, Nancy. Come in tonight at seven. Pam will show you the ropes.”

“Thanks, Jon,” Nancy said. “You’ve done me a bigger favor than you know, she added to herself.

Pam met Nancy just after she went through the front door of Moves that night. Although she kept giving Nancy suspicious looks, she did help her find an apron and a Moves T-shirt. She went over the menu with her until Nancy knew the prices by heart.

“I think this is crazy,” Bess whispered to Nancy when she and George came in later.

Nancy grinned at her friend, tapping her order pad with the end of her pencil. “I don’t have time to stand around chit-chatting with the customers,”
she said in a mock-tough voice. “What’ll it be?”

George laughed. “You’ve got this waitress act down,” she said. “I’ll have a cola.”

“Me, too,” Bess said, getting into the spirit.

Nancy was busy for the next two hours. At this rate, she thought, I’m never going to get any investigating done.

Just before her break, Brenda Carlton came in and deliberately sat in Nancy’s section of the club. “Who do you think you’re fooling with this waitress routine?” she asked.

Nancy favored her rival with a frosty smile. “.How can I help you?” she countered, ignoring Brenda’s question.

Brenda sighed. “You’re up to something,” she persisted. “What is it?”

Nancy widened her eyes. “Up to something? Why, I’m just doing my job, Brenda.”

“Oh, brother,” said Brenda, turning away.

Nancy smiled to herself and headed into the kitchen to take a break. The cooks were trying frantically to keep up with the orders.

“Have you worked here since the club opened?” Nancy asked one of the women, who was busy at the grill.

She didn’t spare Nancy so much as a glance, though her voice wasn’t unfriendly. “Yes,” she said. “And there’s been a time or two when I wished I hadn’t even seen that ad in the paper.”

“How well do you know our boss—Mr. Villiers?”

The woman looked Nancy over. She must have decided to trust her, for she answered, “I know he’s young, and that he doesn’t have much experience running a club.”

Nancy didn’t comment right then, since Pam showed up to leave a new order and pick up several others.

“I hear Jon’s from Chicago,” Nancy ventured when she and the grill girl were alone again.

The woman nodded. “I think so. He’s got an uncle from there who comes to see him sometimes. They argue a lot, but I guess that’s the way with family.”

Nancy glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. Her break had passed too quickly, but it hadn’t been a waste of time. Could Jon’s uncle be the man he’d been sending those big checks to, in Chicago? “Thanks for the company,” she said, climbing down off the stool.

The cook smiled at her and nodded.

As Nancy left the kitchen, she practically collided with Adam Boyd. He took in her apron and T-shirt and acted annoyed.

“I heard you were working here,” he said, his brow crinkled in a frown. “You wouldn’t be here on a case, would you?”

Nancy knew he wouldn’t believe her answer, but she wasn’t about to admit that she was
checking on Jon Villiers. “No,” she answered. “I just want to pick up some extra cash.”

Adam looked skeptical. “You? Why?”

“My dad’s birthday is coming up,” Nancy replied, making her way around him.

Nancy had been back at work for about half an hour when Laurie arrived and went immediately to the sound booth to talk with Jon, who took a break then. Jon and Laurie went out on the floor and danced, holding each other close, their gazes locked.

Nancy was caught by surprise when Jon and Laurie moved directly toward her. Laurie’s arm was linked with Jon’s, but her eyes were fixed on Nancy. She looked angry.

“You’re working here?” she yelled, over the noise of the crowd, her gaze shifting from Nancy . to Jon.

“She started tonight,” Jon answered, looking pleased. Apparently he hadn’t noticed how annoyed Laurie was.

Laurie’s grip on Jon’s arm tightened. She gave Nancy a cold look. Laurie knew Nancy was there to snoop and Laurie had asked Nancy to stop. Nancy watched her drag Jon off in the direction of his office.

It looked as if Nancy’s days on the case were numbered.

N
ANCY WAITED
, expecting the ax to fall at any moment. Laurie would surely tell Jon about Nancy’s reputation as an amateur detective. He would guess then why she’d wanted to work at Moves and fire her immediately.

But nothing happened. Jon came out of his office and went back to the sound booth without even glancing at Nancy.

Nancy didn’t have time to think about what might be going on. The club was crowded, and she had to work hard until quitting time. Bess and George were waiting to ride home with her,
and she told them about Laurie’s reaction to seeing her working at the club.

“She’s probably going to blow your cover,” Bess said.

“Maybe not,” George argued. “After all, if she was going to tell Jon about you, wouldn’t she have done it by now?”

Nancy hoped George was right.

• • •

The next morning Nancy called Laurie at home. Mrs. Weaver answered and said her daughter had already left the house to meet a friend.

“Will you ask her to call me when she gets back, please?” Nancy asked.

After thanking Mrs. Weaver and hanging up, Nancy took her shower and dressed. As she was eating breakfast, the telephone rang. Nancy reached for it eagerly, hoping the caller was Laurie.

The voice on the other end of the line belonged to Ned. “Hello, Drew,” he said. “How are you?”

Nancy answered with a smile in her words. “Well, nobody’s tried to kill me today, if that’s what you mean.”

Ned chuckled. “And it’s almost nine-thirty. So how’s the case going? Have you found out anything new?”

“I haven’t made any earth-shattering discoveries. But I did take a job at Moves,” she admitted.

“Clever,” Ned said, laughing. “You get rid of me so you can sneak out and get a job.”