Nancy Clue Mysteries 3 - A Ghost in the Closet (19 page)

"Eek!" she cried as two long-legged creatures dripping water and oozing a brown substance climbed the porch steps. "It's sea monsters!" she cried, raising her hands to her face in fright. "Oops!" she tittered when she snapped on the porch light and found it was really Frank and Nancy.

"Very funny," Nancy glowered as she stepped through the doorway, with Frank right behind her.

The chums had a million questions for the detectives.

"Where have you been?"

"Are you hurt? Any cuts or contusions? Do you feel dizzy or nauseous? Would you like a pain reliever?"

"How did you get from the closet to the front door?"

"Do you think that mud will come out of your nice swim costume?"

"And what's that on your head?"

Nancy fled for the washroom, leaving Frank behind to explain their strange adventure. Willy grabbed a clean towel while Uncle Nelly went to put the kettle on for a pot of warming tea. "Golly," Joe cried, with not a little envy, as he watched the powerful Willy give the dripping wet lad a vigorous rubdown. Frank had all the fun!

Frank's words tumbled out all willy-nilly as he explained their exciting discovery. "There's a cave under our charming cottage that leads to the lake. It goes somewhere else, too, but the tunnel's been dynamited. Do you know what that means?" he asked the others.

Uncle Nelly clapped with glee. Why, the cave could very well be the answer to all of their storage needs and the site of any number of fun theme parties.

"It means the triangles on the map we found are caves," Jackie cried.

"You found the map?" Frank gasped.

"Thanks to Uncle Nelly," Joe grinned. Uncle Nelly beamed with pride. It was the least he could have done! "You just have to know what it is you're looking for," he said modestly.

Frank poured over the diagram. "There appear to be three ways into the caverns," he announced. "The one we found, which is unfortunately blocked, one at the River Depths Sanitarium and another at a house on Shady Lane. Joe, get me the map from our car." A moment later, Frank had his answer. "The third entrance is at 37 Shady Lane."

"That's the address of the Meekses' palatial summer home," Nancy announced. She had had a quick bath and was now clad in a comfy mint-green terry cloth robe several sizes too large and had a matching towel wrapped turban-style around her trademark titian hair. Even in a borrowed bathrobe and a simple towel Nancy still looked picture-perfect.

Nancy filled them in. "In the mid-1940s, Myra Meeks received an unexpected inheritance from a distant relative that allows her and her family to live a lavish lifestyle far exceeding a judge's salary. The first thing she did was buy the lake home on Shady Lane. Funny thing is, the same publicity-mad Myra Meeks, who invites reporters to visit her suburban home every time she redecorates, refuses to let anyone step inside her summer house."

"Maybe it's where she goes to get away from the demands of being a successful society matron," Cherry guessed.

"I hear she has eggshell-white carpet," Uncle Nelly said in a knowing tone.

"So there's little chance she'll let us dig up her floor to look for an entrance," Joe sighed.

"Not even a matter of the utmost national security would convince Myra Meeks to let us inside that house," Nancy shook her head. "I know because once, when I was working on The Case of the Lost Lawn Ornaments, I tried to take a shortcut through her property and was almost eaten by fierce dogs."

"Besides, you know she's the biggest gossip in town. Why, if we tell her what's going on, in a matter of minutes it will be all over Lake Merrimen that our parents have been kidnapped by Russians," Frank warned.

CHAPTER 29

A Dire Warning!

The doorbell rang, then a thin yellow envelope shot under the door. It was a telegram for the Hardly boys!

"A telegram at eleven o'clock at night; it must be important," Cherry cried.

"Perhaps it's from Chief O'Malley," Joe said hopefully, "with a vital clue for our investigation." He eagerly ripped open the flimsy envelope and read the brief missive aloud.

"To Hardly boys. Stop. Stay away from secret caves! Stop. Danger! Stop. Signed, a friend. Stop."

"This cinches it! " Frank cried. "Someone's trying their best to scare us away, but it's not going to work!"

"But how are we going to get down there?" Joe groaned.

"Frank, would you agree that if there's one underwater cave leading to a tunnel, there just might be another?" Nancy wondered.

"That's exactly what I was thinking, Nancy," Frank admitted. "Those underwater formations often occur in multiples. Joe, let's strap on our new scuba gear and make a thorough search of the lakeshore wall for another cave," he proposed.

"We'll cover more ground by breaking into pairs," Nancy agreed with a furtive look Cherry's way.

"Nancy's right," Jackie added. She took her gold detective's shield from her pocket and pinned it to her tee-shirt, then checked to make sure her gun was loaded. It was. "I'm going to the Lake Merrimen jail and interrogate that thug. We haven't time to sit around and wait for the chief to question him."

"Right!" Nancy enthused, relieved to be getting the dashing detective out of her just-washed hair.

"That guy might need a nurse when I get through with him," Jackie added, looking straight at Cherry.

"You know I'll go wherever the call to duty takes me," Cherry cried. "But first, let me get my sweater."

"Wait!" Nancy cried. "I have a-- er-plan, and I need-uha nurse in order for it to work! "

"I'm a nurse!" Cherry gasped.

Jackie crossed her muscular arms over her broad chest and looked annoyed. What was Nancy up to? "Oh, really?" she asked Nancy in a suspicious tone. "What's this plan of yours?"

"Cherry and I are going to search for a way inside those hidden caves, too," the quick-thinking detective replied. "We're going undercover at the River Depths Sanitarium!"

"Are we both going to be nurses?" Cherry wondered. Golly, if she had known this was going to happen, she would have packed two Travel Nurses' uniforms.

Nancy shook her head. "You'll be a private nurse traveling with Miss Darcy New, a movie actress who's suffered a recent nervous collapse."

Joe was puzzled. "Who's this Darcy New, and can we trust her to keep a secret?" he wondered.

Nancy giggled, slipped on dark glasses and clip-on earrings from her pocketbook and said, in a husky tone, "You mean you don't remember me from my starring role in the smash hit Chit Chat?"

Joe was impressed. Using just a few props and her own innate abilities, Nancy had transformed herself into a glamorous actress!

"It's an alias I used while returning to River Depths," Nancy further explained. "In Dust Bin, Nebraska, we fooled some nosy reporters into believing that I was an actress suffering from a nervous breakdown, headed for the worldrenowned River Depths Sanitarium, and not girl detective Nancy Clue headed home to confess to the murder of my father."

"And I said I was her nurse, which wasn't really a lie since I am a nurse," Cherry added.

"As a nurse, you can move through the sanitarium virtually unnoticed," Nancy pointed out, "while I'll be able to mingle with the patients and subtly quiz them about secret tunnels. It's the perfect solution, but I'll need a Companion Nurse to cinch the charade."

"I'm your girl," Cherry promised. "I mean, I'm your-ernurse," she hastily amended when she saw the pained expression in Jackie's eyes.

"It's too dangerous," Jackie objected. "I don't want anything to happen to you, Cherry," she added in a softer tone.

"Cherry will be in good hands with Nancy," Frank reassured Jackie.

Jackie was none too happy to hear that. A look of fierce determination spread across her face. If she could crack this case tonight, she could stop this sanitarium misadventure of Nancy's from ever starting! "I'll be back-and soon," she told the others as she raced out the door.

"Good-bye and good luck," Cherry called as she flicked on the porch light and waved to the departing detective. Jackie hopped into Joe's jalopy, gunned the motor and pulled out of the driveway. A few seconds later, the car screeched to an abrupt halt, the back door flew open and a chagrined-looking Midge and Velma tumbled out of the back seat. Midge exchanged a few quick words with Jackie, then the car roared off, leaving the bedraggled couple standing on the front lawn holding their shoes.

"Midge! Velma! Where have you been?" Cherry cried as she raced over to her chums. She hadn't seen them for hours!

Midge looked a little sheepish. "During the party, we snuck away to take a nap in the back seat of Joe's jalopy and when we woke up, we were here," she explained, adding, "Wherever this is." She tucked the tail of her short-sleeved shirt into her trousers and buckled her thin leather belt. Velma ducked into a dark corner of the porch to smooth on her stockings and otherwise straighten her mussed outfit.

"What's happened?" Midge quizzed Cherry. "Why is Jackie going to talk to the poodlesnatcher now? She looked pretty upset."

"Nancy and I are going to the sanitarium," Cherry reported.

"Things are bad," Midge muttered. She shook her head. And everything had been going so well at the party. "Honestly, we can't leave you kids alone for a minute," she sighed.

"You don't know the half of it, Midge," Cherry exclaimed. "The Hardly parents have been kidnapped by Russian agents, Frank and Nancy fell through the closet floor, and now we're all searching for a way into some secret caverns where we believe there might be even bigger secrets."

Midge stared at Cherry. "Is that all?" she asked dryly.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Cherry cried. "It turns out Frank and Joe's father, Mr. Hardly, is really a girl," she said confidentially. "Only don't mention it in front of Frank, as it seems to have upset him."

Nancy poked her head out the door. "Oh! Midge, Velma. Where have you two been?"

"In another world, apparently," Midge shook her head.

"Tell me all about it later," Nancy cried. "Cherry, we need you in here now. We're scheming." Cherry eagerly obeyed.

Midge raised one eyebrow in alarm and shot Velma a worried look. Velma calmly took out her compact and applied powder to her shiny nose. Then she snapped it shut. "Don't interfere," she warned Midge as she went into the house, adding, "You've got lipstick all over your neck."

Midge hastily scrubbed her neck with her handkerchief. Once inside, the boys, busy testing their scuba gear, quickly brought Midge and Velma up to date.

"What can I do?" Midge wondered when she realized the gravity of the situation.

"You can come to the lake with us," Joe offered. "I'm sure Mother wouldn't mind if we loaned you one of her bathing costumes."

Midge looked horrified. "I couldn't just go in what I'm wearing?" she asked hopefully, looking down at her rumpled trousers and scuffed wingtips.

Frank shook his head. "Those shoes would sink you in a minute," he said.

"I'll go to the sanitarium with Nancy and Cherry then," Midge offered.

"Me too," Velma piped up.

"No way," Midge said. "It's too dangerous."

"I'm sticking to you, Midge Fontaine," Velma stubbornly declared. "I'll be a nurse. Cherry can show me what to do."

Cherry wondered if this was going to be her last outing as Cherry Aimless, Registered Nurse. What was the penalty, she wondered, for helping someone impersonate a nurse? Would she lose her license? Have her crisp cap and cunning cape taken away? She squared her shoulders and pushed those thoughts out of her head. Her chum Nancy's friends' parents were in trouble and that was all that mattered!

"Midge, you can't come with us because it's a women's psychiatric hospital," Cherry explained. "You'd either have to check yourself in as a patient and submit to a thorough physical examination-"

Midge shuddered.

"-or put on a nurse's uniform and pretend to work there," she finished.

"Me in a dress?" Midge raised one brow in alarm. "Can't I just sneak in and stay close at hand in case you need me?"

"The place is crawling with staff," Nancy told her. "It's a very private institution with the best care and newest treatments." Her mind was racing a mile a minute as she planned a suitable wardrobe for the adventure ahead. Conservatively speaking, she'd need a glamorous travel outfit, several pairs of lounging pajamas, a few cute bed jackets, and sports outfits suitable for prowling the grounds in search of tunnels.

"I guess we're stuck here," Midge sighed to Velma, who gave her a little squeeze. There was no one she'd rather be stuck to than Midge!

"I'll need help manning the Hardly Command Center at the Hardly house," Willy pointed out. Once Willy had explained exactly what that was, Midge readily agreed to be second-incharge of the vital electronic gizmos.

"It's all settled, then," Nancy declared. "I'll go home and select my wardrobe. Since the stores closed hours ago, I'll have to make due with what I've got," she said resignedly. "I'll just have to alter some of my own outfits if I'm going to pass as a glamorous movie star."

"What kind of movie star are you going to play?" Joe wondered as he checked the oxygen level in his air tank. "The bubbly all-American girl-next-door who goes to the big city and gets her heart broken only to realize life on the farm isn't as bad as she thought, or the pretty young ingenue with stardust in her eyes who'll do anything to be that one-in-a-million who makes it in a tough industry?"