Stay Tuned for Danger (11 page)

Nancy sat down beside her aunt and took her hand. “Aunt Eloise,” she said calmly, “ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been trying to solve mysteries. I can’t quit now! It’s my life, Aunt Eloise. It’s what I do best. Don’t ask me to give it up now, please.”

Tears in her eyes, Eloise hugged her niece fiercely. “I’ll be biting my nails the whole time, you know that?” she said with a resigned laugh. “But why do you have to meet at the studio?”

“Oh, you know how dramatic soap people are. Just a little added mystery. Now, come on, there’s nothing to worry about,” Nancy countered with a smile. “And besides, I know quite a lot of karate, remember? All those lessons ought to be good for something.”

When she got to Worldwide Broadcasting, Nancy picked up her pass at the security desk, then slipped into the main corridor. Every muscle in her body was tensed. There was something wrong about all this—she knew it the moment she had heard Lillian’s voice. But something drove her on, step by step, toward the studio.

As she turned down a corridor, she saw someone and ducked back around the corner. It was the janitor, mopping the floors. Not wanting to run into anyone, she went back around, taking the long way to the studio in order to avoid him.

Finally, she reached the vacuum-sealed door and pushed her way in. The set was dimly lit, but Nancy’s eyes adjusted to the darkness. At first it seemed to be deserted, but then Nancy saw her.

Lillian was sitting oh a chair on the set of the Danner kitchen, holding her head in her hands. As Nancy approached, she turned around.

“Our fair rescuer,” she said, under her breath. “How kind of you to come.” The words were full of, bravado, but the old self-assured Lillian was gone. The mocking look had disappeared, and Lillian’s face was now fearful.

“Why did you ask me to come here?” Nancy demanded. “What’s all this about?”

“Oh, I’m not the maniac, if that’s what you’re worried about. In fact, I asked you here because—” Lillian’s voice wavered. “Because he’s after
me
now.”

Nancy crossed the room and sat down next to Lillian. Then she listened intently to every word of her story.

“When things started turning weird around here, I got curious. Actually, I was kind of hoping Rick would get what he deserved, if you get my meaning. But then I found something. It was that day I ran into you in the hall. I had just found it in a closet. I didn’t want to tell anyone about it, so I hid it where no one would come across it.”

“The prop room, of course!” Nancy’s eyes lit up. So that was why Lillian had acted so secretively that day!

“Right. And this little item I found made me want to find out more. So I did. I kept on finding more and more, until—” Lillian’s voice was barely a whisper. “Until I got this yesterday.” She handed Nancy a typewritten note. “Were you thinking of blackmail, my pet?” it read. “Not if I kill you first.”

“So you see,” Lillian went on, “that’s why I called you here. In case anything happens to me. I mean, I knew you were on the case, and, well, you understand.” She picked up a shopping bag that lay at her feet and, taking something out of it, she held it up for Nancy to look at.

“A long-haired wig, glasses, a T-shirt—” Nancy sifted through the contents, her suspicions confirmed. “It looks like a disguise. Whoever it was used it to get around the set unnoticed.”

“Exactly,” Lillian agreed. “And what better disguise than as a stagehand? One of those anonymous people walking around during every shoot. Everyone else is so busy doing their work, no one notices. It’s perfect!”

“What else did you find?” Nancy asked.

“Oh, more of the same. Different every day. I knew immediately that it was an actor. Or an ex-actor—”

Then I was right! Nancy said to herself.

“You see,” Lillian went on, “I finally put two and two together. Which, I hate to say, is more than you’ve done.”

“I take it you have proof of the maniac’s identity, then,” Nancy said.

“Of course I do,” she said with a wicked smile. “It is—”

Lillian didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence. All of a sudden, every light in the entire studio flashed on. Shading her eyes, Nancy glanced up to the director’s booth, where the lighting controls were.

There, looking down at them from behind the thick Plexiglas, was Dwayne Casper! His expression was furious, and in his hand was a gun—pointed straight at Nancy!

Chapter Sixteen

“
W
ELL, HELLO, YOU
two!” Dwayne’s voice boomed at them, seeming to come from every imaginable direction. He let out a monstrous laugh. “I only followed Lillian, but I’ve trapped both of you. How lucky! Congratulations, your death scenes will look so lovely on videotape. A videotape for my personal viewing pleasure only!”

For an instant, Dwayne relaxed his grip on the gun a bit. Nancy, seeing her chance, made a dash for the door. Just as she reached it, she heard it go
whooossshh
, and the red light above it flashed on. The door was locked—vacuum sealed.

“Are we locked up down there?” Dwayne screamed in a grotesque parody of Luther Parks. He laughed again. “A little stage fright, Ms. Elliot? Actually, I didn’t know until yesterday that you and Ms. Elliot were one and the same. Very good bit of acting. Very realistic. You see, we strive for realism here—real bullets, real blood, real death.” He waved his gun playfully at them.

“You two are only the first act. Rick Arlen’s death will be the climax of my little soap opera. He’s gotten away from me so far, thanks to you, Nancy Drew. But with you two little nuisances out of the way, I don’t think he has much of a chance. Do you?”

Dwayne paused, waiting for a reply. Nancy had to think fast. This might be her only chance to save her life and Lillian’s. Somehow she had to distract him, make him forget he had a gun.

“Dwayne, why? Why do you hate Rick so much? Lillian and Mattie have more reason to hate him than you do!”

Her words seemed to ignite Dwayne’s fury. He exploded at her, just as he had at Bess that day in his office.

“More reason than I? What do you know about it? Keep your ignorant little mouth shut! Rick Arlen has to die, and I’ll tell you why. Because he killed me, that’s why. He killed Dwayne Casper.”

Dwayne paused for breath. Nancy had the feeling Dwayne’s story was a long one. That was good. She needed time—time to think of a way out.

“I was an actor,” Dwayne cried, all the hurt and rage in him pouring out with his story. “I’d studied every aspect of my craft and was a master of Shakespeare, dialects, stage combat—everything. I was underrated and underappreciated—but brilliant. Then I met Mattie.

“We fell in love, and I was the happiest man on earth. Then—then came August. We did
Romeo and Juliet
. Mattie was Juliet, but Rick beat me out for the role of Romeo. The director was a sucker for a pretty face, and so, I soon found out, was Mattie.

“From that moment on, my life was never the same. And I never forgot what he had done to me.”

As Dwayne ranted on, Nancy looked around desperately for some way out.

“I am not like some people, who fall in love every day,” he rasped. “When I lost Mattie, I knew that I would never love anyone ever again. I decided that if I couldn’t have her, I’d make money, lots of money. I gave up acting and became an agent instead.

“I made them stars. I did it all. And how did Rick pay me back? By leaving me, that’s how. I got nothing in return for all my hard work—nothing at all. He had destroyed me again.

“Once Rick left, other clients began to leave. All I had left was Mattie. And then—” Dwayne paused, and his expression grew dark with rage. “Then he started luring Mattie away from me. That’s when I decided to kill him. Which brings me back—” he raised the gun at Nancy, looking down at them “—to you two ladies.”

“Dwayne!” Nancy shouted, shaking him out of his daze. “Your story sounds like a soap opera. That stuff doesn’t happen in real life!”

“That shows what you know about life, Nancy Drew,” Dwayne rasped into the mike.” “Real life
is
a soap opera. You’ll learn that. Or rather, you would have, had you lived.”

“Rick didn’t kill you,” Nancy insisted. “You’re still—”

Dwayne erupted again. “Enough!” he screamed. “It’s time for the final closeup. I’m going to write you two out of the script forever.”

Quickly, he disappeared from sight. Nancy guessed that he was on his way down to the set. That only gave her a few seconds to think of something.

Nancy looked frantically around. Lillian was standing, shocked, unable to help in any way. She was frozen with fear. As clever as she had been in figuring out who the criminal was, she was utterly useless right then.

In the few seconds she had left, Nancy scanned the set, looking for something—anything. Then, she saw it.

Over in the corner stood a large metal cylinder. On it were written the words “Smoke Machine.” Rushing over to it, Nancy found the control switch and turned it to the Dense setting.

Not a moment too soon, either. Seemingly from nowhere, Dwayne appeared.

“Ah, there you are, my nosy little friend. Would you care to rejoin Ms. Weiss onstage?”

Nancy moved slowly back to the kitchen area, hoping that her plan would work.

“What’s that hissing?” Dwayne turned and looked around nervously, but all he could see was the nearer half of the studio. The rest was hidden by a thick white fog, which was made even worse by the spotlights.

Quickly, while his back was turned, Nancy grabbed Lillian by the arm and pulled her into the protection of the fog. By the time Dwayne realized what was happening and turned around again, they were gone!

Dwayne cursed loudly as Nancy dragged Lillian into a foggy corner on the set. She left Lillian there and began to walk toward the sound of Dwayne’s voice. She had to get the jump on him from behind.

Then she heard a sound that made her heart sink. It was the sound of a giant fan—the wind machine.

“Very clever, Nancy Drew,” came Dwayne’s voice through the diminishing fog. “But there’s an antidote for every poison, or vice versa.”

The fog was now down to a very small area, and Nancy knew that her time was running out. Crouching down, she took a deep breath and prepared to make a desperate dive at Dwayne. He would still have the gun, she knew. She had only one advantage—surprise.

Rearing back, Nancy flung herself through the air at Dwayne. At the last moment, he turned and saw her. The two of them fell together, toppling over each other, and Dwayne’s gun emptied itself.

Chapter Seventeen

“
T
HOSE WERE GUNSHOTS
coming from the set!”

“Quick, this way!”

When the police raced onto the set they found Dwayne Casper flat on the floor. On top of him was Nancy Drew, holding his arms in a double hammerlock.

“His gun is on the floor over there,” she told the police breathlessly as they relieved her of her burden.

“Nancy!” Eloise exclaimed, rushing over to her.

“I’m fine, really, Aunt Eloise.”

“Well, all the karate lessons in the world wouldn’t have helped if this bullet had come any closer!” Eloise poked at the sleeve of Nancy’s jacket. In it was a charred round hole the size of a dime.

Nancy looked down at the hole, her heart skipping a beat. “Please, don’t tell Dad,” she begged. “And I promise I’ll be more careful from now on.”

Throwing her arms around her niece, Eloise sighed. “Oh, Nancy, I’m just glad you’re alive!”

Bess rushed up to them and threw her arms over theirs in a three-way hug. “Thank goodness, you’re all right!” she cried. “When we heard the shots—” She couldn’t go on.

The police had handcuffed Dwayne, who stood there passively, a dull look in his eye.

“Do you know how close I was to paying Arlen back for all he’s done to me?” he began telling the police officer, who stood impassively beside him clutching his arm. “Do you know how long I worked to get this close?” Dwayne muttered bitterly, his hands locked behind his back.

“Tell your story to the sergeant, buddy,” the police officer said. “Ms. Drew, I’ll need to get a statement from you and from Ms. Weiss. Would you see that she makes it down to the station house?”

“Of course,” Nancy agreed. In all the commotion, she hadn’t even given a thought to Lillian. Apparently, the fright had been a bit too much for her—she’d fainted.

“I
had
to call the police, Nancy,” Eloise was explaining. “Something told me you weren’t safe, and I had to.”

At the door, Dwayne spun around suddenly. “Rick Arlen was going to die. He should have died! And I would have killed him if it hadn’t been for you, Nancy Drew!”

“Whew.” Bess sighed as the officer pushed Dwayne outside. “He’s crazy—”

“He’s in the right hands now,” Nancy added soberly. “And not a moment too soon, either.”

“Flight four-seventeen will be boarding at gate three in five minutes.”

“That’s our flight, Aunt Eloise,” said Nancy, putting down her luggage so she could give her aunt a hug.

“You must promise me you’ll come again soon—maybe in the fall?” Eloise asked. “And give your father my love, will you? Goodbye, Bess—I hope I’ll see you again soon.”

But when Nancy and Bess turned to go, they heard their names being called out.

“Nancy! Bess, wait!” A familiar voice floated down the airport corridor. Turning around, Nancy saw a radiant Mattie Jensen running toward them, her auburn curls flying around her face. “We couldn’t let you leave without saying goodbye,” she cried.

Beside her, Rick Arlen was cradling two large bouquets of roses in his arms. He handed the first to Nancy and said, “Thank you for saving my life, Nancy—I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

Then he turned to Bess, who seemed more than a little flustered. “This one is for you, love,” he murmured, giving her the flowers.

“Oh, Rick, thank you,” she cried, letting down her guard. For a minute, Nancy almost felt sorry that she had been thinking of him as such a heel. She was sure the flowers were his way of saying he was sorry for toying with Bess’s emotions.