Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew (5 page)

“Ooh, there are some gorgeous things in that book!” Bess said to the others, after glancing at someone else’s brochure.

Nancy quickly leafed through hers, pausing now and then to look at stunning color photographs of Old English silver and Oriental porcelain.

“Go back a few pages,” George said shortly.

Nancy did so and, to her amazement, discovered the entry of a medallion that bore the head of a lion! It had belonged to a man named Galen Kaiser.

Was this what Ted Henri was referring to in the mysterious message he sent to his sister?

The girl detectives were careful not to discuss their find openly. Instead, they scanned the audience, looking for someone who matched Ted’s description. A couple of men came close to it, but one had a bulbous nose and the other a ring of pock marks under his eyes. Jackie had not mentioned either of those characteristics.

Then the auction started and the girls’ attention was drawn to a number of fine gold tea-cups. They were displayed on a velvet table that swung into view on a moving platform.

“Shall we bid?” George asked teasingly as the auctioneer called out successive bids.

“I have five hundred dollars. Do I hear more?” he said.

“Well, I’m not really looking for gold tea-cups,” Nancy responded lightly.

One after the other, items from the estates of several wealthy people passed in and out of sight. Nancy and the cousins eagerly awaited the medallion.

“Here it comes!” Bess murmured as it appeared on the table, glittering under the spotlight.

From where the young detectives sat, they could not see it fully. Then, the auctioneer covered the microphone with his hand and turned sideways to speak to his assistant, completely obscuring the table from the girls’ view. When he addressed the audience again, the young detectives were surprised to see that the medallion was gone. A small gold dish with a stand-up rim stood in its place!

“Do you suppose the medallion was stolen?” Bess whispered to her friends, who did not reply.

The auctioneer soon announced that the order of entries had been changed and the medallion would go up for bid shortly.

“Maybe somebody is switching the real one for a fake,” Bess continued.

“That would be too obvious,” George declared.

When the medallion came into view again, Nancy leaned forward. She didn’t want to miss anything that was about to happen!

The bidding started. One hundred, two hundred, up to five hundred dollars!

“It’s only estimated at one hundred fifty,” Nancy informed the cousins. She held up her hand, signaling an offer.

“Are you crazy?” Bess cried under her breath, as the auctioneer announced Nancy’s bid of five hundred fifty.

“I’m just curious,” the young detective replied, waiting for one of two other bidders to respond.

Both of them had seemed unusually eager to buy the piece, but now they were silent.

“Going once, twice,” the auctioneer said slowly. He held his mallet ready to pound on a desk.

Panic-stricken, Nancy realized that she was about to become the proud owner of something she really didn’t want. Not only that, she would have to drain her savings account to pay for it!

The auctioneer held the mallet a moment longer, glancing at the men who had bid first on the medallion. Nancy’s heart pounded as she prayed that one of them would raise his hand.

She didn’t see the signal, but the auctioneer suddenly said, “Six hundred dollars. I have a bid of six hundred. Do I hear more?”

“Whew!” Bess exclaimed, echoing Nancy’s own relief. “What would you have done?”

“I’d probably have to scrub Dad’s office for the rest of my life!” Nancy said.

“Why did you bid on that thing, anyway?” George inquired.

Nancy shrugged. “I did it on the spur of the moment, thinking perhaps I’d get some reaction from those men by starting to compete with them.”

Nancy paused a moment, then added, “And I was hoping that if I entered the bidding, I might pick up a clue as to why they both wanted the medallion.”

“Well, it didn’t happen,” George said.

Nancy nodded. She wondered if the men would challenge each other further, but the medallion went to the one who had offered six hundred dollars.

Eagerly the girls watched the rest of the auction. A set of Meissen dinnerware was sold to a woman. Georgian candlesticks went to someone else and an unusual array of dinner bells to a third person. The men who had bid for the medallion remained silent throughout the balance of the sale.

When it was over, Nancy rose to her feet. “I’d like to congratulate the winner,” she told her friends.

“We’re sticking with you,” Bess said, following her cousin and Nancy through the crowd.

The man who had bought the medallion was short, with a bald head that shone like a billiard ball, and Nancy was able to keep him in sight easily. He went to a counter already filled with winning bidders who wished to claim their prizes. When one woman stepped away with a small carton, he quickly took her place.

Nancy and her friends moved behind him, noticing the name stamped on the check he signed. It was Russell Kaiser!

Was he related to Galen Kaiser? the girls wondered. If so, why would he have bid on something that belonged to the Kaiser family in the first place?

“Mr. Kaiser,” Nancy said as a clerk handed him the medallion, “I wanted to—”

“Aren’t you the person who forced the bid to six hundred?” he grumbled.

“Yes, I am,” Nancy replied, somewhat embarrassed.

“Humph.”

“May I ask you a couple of questions?” she went on boldly.

“What about?”

“The medallion, of course.”

“I’m sorry, miss. I have a dinner party to go too and I’m late already. Excuse me.”

He brushed past her, muttering under his breath, and hurried toward an exit sign.

“He certainly wasn’t very friendly,” George said. “I wonder why that medallion is so important.”

“I guess we’ll never know,” Bess commented with disappointment.

Just then a voice behind them stopped the conversation. “Miss Nancy Drew?” a man asked, causing the girls to face the other bidder on the medallion.

He was blond, about forty, and had thick, straight eyebrows that lay close together over a long and rather slim nose.

“I’m Nancy Drew,” the young detective spoke up, surprised that he knew her name.

“I’m Russell Kaiser.”

“Huh?” Bess replied, incredulous.

“No, that was—” Nancy started to say, quickly catching herself. She let the man continue.

“I recognized you from a newspaper article that covered a recent mystery you solved,” he went on.

“Which one?” Nancy replied.

“I’m sorry to say I really don’t remember,” he said, blushing.

“Are you sure your name is Kaiser?” George asked, unable to restrain herself any longer.

“Of course.”

“We don’t mean to sound presumptuous,” Bess said, “but the gentleman who just bought that medallion claimed he was Russell Kaiser.”

“What? That’s impossible.”

“His name was on the check he signed.”

Immediately, their listener pulled out a checkbook, then other identification cards, glancing through them rapidly.

“Everything’s here,” he said, slipping them back into his coat pocket. “But I’ve got to stop payment on that man’s check in case he’s trying to draw money out of my bank account!”

He hurried to the desk clerk, spoke to him briefly, then returned to the girls.

“Mr. Kaiser—” Nancy began.

“Call me Russell.”

“Okay, Russell. If you don’t mind my asking, I’d like to know why two men would bid three times the estimated value of that medallion.”

Her listener hesitated a moment before speaking. “I just returned from a business trip and found a letter from an old friend of my uncle‘s,” he began.

“Your uncle was Galen Kaiser?” Nancy inquired.

“Yes. His friend indicated that he wished to have the medallion for sentimental reasons. Everything, though, had been shipped to the auction house already, and there was no way to get hold of the medallion before the bidding started. So the only thing I could do was bid on it myself.”

“What a shame,” Bess commented, thinking the man had not only lost out on the piece for his uncle’s friend but an impostor had walked away with it!

“Are you sure your uncle’s friend only wanted the medallion for sentimental reasons?” Nancy inquired.

Russell seemed puzzled by the question. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Nancy went on, “isn’t it strange that someone else would have bid so much for the piece?”

“Nancy’s right,” Bess said. “There must be something about the medallion that none of us realizes.”

“I certainly don’t know what it is,” he said. “I bid as much as I could possibly afford, but then—” His voice trailed off and he looked as if he were about to cry. “My uncle was a fine man—good to his friends, and they loved him. I happen to know that the man who wrote to me helped my uncle at a time when he needed it.”

Although the girls knew nothing about the Kaiser family, they were overwhelmed by the nephew’s obvious sensitivity. If only they could capture the stranger and rescue the medallion!

“Will you help me find the impostor?” the man pleaded.

“Definitely,” Bess replied.

“I’ll give a complete description of him to the police,” Nancy volunteered and stood up to go to the nearest telephone.

“Wait!” Russell said. “I’d rather postpone that for the time being. You see, my family is well-known, and I’d like to avoid any publicity about this. If you don’t track the man down on your own, we can call the police then.”

Nancy hesitated a moment, but then acceded to the man’s wishes. “We’ll see what we can come up with,” she promised. “Where can we reach you?”

“Here,” he replied, handing her a printed card. “I work out of my home,” he added.

The address, to Nancy’s surprise, was not in a chic East Side neighborhood. It was in the heart of midtown, west of Fifth Avenue.

“We’ll be in touch as soon as we have something to report,” she said.

On the way back to Aunt Eloise’s apartment, the girls discussed the strange events of the evening.

“It’s really peculiar,” George commented. “We go to an auction looking for Ted Henri and wind up hunting for Russell Kaiser’s impersonator.”

Nancy nodded thoughtfully. “I guess we’ve stumbled on a completely new mystery!”

The next morning, the girls were up early. “What’s our program for today?” Bess asked when they all were seated around the breakfast table.

“I think we should go the police station and take a look at the mug shots. Perhaps we can find a lead to the identity of the fake Russell Kaiser,” Nancy declared.

“Good idea,” George declared.

“I also want to call Jackie, just to make sure that neither of the two men we saw last night was Ted.”

As soon as Nancy swallowed her last mouthful of scrambled eggs, she contacted the model. Jacqueline confirmed that her brother did not have a bulbous nose or any pock marks under his eyes.

“I’m sorry you weren’t successful,” she added.

“Well, we’ve come upon another interesting mystery in the interim,” Nancy said, and told the young woman about the medallion with the lion’s head on top and the two Russell Kaisers. “I don’t know if there’s a connection between the symbol on your brother’s note and the figure on the medallion, but we’re following it all up. I am leaving for the police station now.”

“My, you are a busy detective.” The model laughed into the phone.

Nancy smiled. “My stockpile of mysteries is getting a little heavy,” she admitted. “After we finish talking to the police, I’ll have to stop by Mr. Reese’s office.”

“He happens to be near a wonderful little dress shop, which you all must see,” Jackie said. “Promise me you’ll go.” She gave Nancy the address.

The girl detective chuckled, secretly wondering if the dresses would be as outlandish as the makeup results on Bess.

“We’ll let you know if we buy anything,” she concluded the conversation.

Bess and George had already slipped into their coats and waited impatiently for Nancy to put hers on. Then they said good-bye to Aunt Eloise, who was also preparing to leave.

“Marjorie and I have to tally the proceeds of the show this morning,” she informed her niece.

“Well, I hope you made a whole bucket full of money and—” Nancy said when the ring of the telephone interrupted her.

“You take it, dear,” Aunt Eloise said.

To Nancy’s surprise, it was a telegram from her father! She listened intently to the message which the operator read:

“How strange!” Nancy said to her friends as she hung up the receiver.

“Who was it?” Bess asked.

“Dad—I mean a telegram from Dad.”

“That
is
odd,” George remarked. “Of course, we came in late last night, but he could have called this morning. Maybe you ought to try phoning him.”

The same thought had occurred to Nancy. She made two telephone calls, one to the house where Hannah told her that her father had already left for the office, and the other to the office where his secretary informed her that Mr. Drew was off on an all-day business appointment.

“Well, I can’t chance it,” Nancy told the other girls. “If Dad wants me to wait for documents, I’d better do it.”

She took off the coat that hung loosely on her shoulders and returned it to the closet.

“Of course, this doesn’t mean you girls have to stick around,” she added.