The Borgia Dagger (6 page)

"Just what do you think you're doing, pal?' Harley said. He drew back a fist.

"Saving her life," Joe said. He held out the Bottle of arsenic for everyone to see.

The room fell silent, except for a gasp from Tessa.

"I don't believe it," she said finally, her face as white as the sheet on her cot.

"Oh, my word!" Dr. Lansdale exclaimed, taking the bottle from Joe. "How could I have done this?"

"What's a bottle of arsenic doing in here any way?" Frank asked.

"My goodness, my goodness, what indeed?" Dr. Lansdale said, shaking her head. "I have told myself time and again that something like this might happen. I buy these from a drug company and then dissolve them in water to use as a weed-killer. I sometimes store them in here. And with my eyesight the way it's gotten these days ... Oh, honey, how can you ever forgive me?"

"I - it's not you, Aunt Harriet," Tessa said, with tears welling in her eyes. "There's something else in control here, something bigger than all of us."

"Whatever do you mean, sweetheart?" Dr. Lansdale said.

"It's the Borgia curse, I know it!" Tessa was practically screaming by now. "I'm doomed! There's no place I can be safe!"

"Shh, it's all going to be okay," said Frank. "It was a simple accident. There are no such things as ancient curses. This is the twentieth century."

"The boy is right, darling," Dr. Lansdale said. "I'm so, so sorry. From now on I will never make such a careless mistake. I think the best thing for your nerves right now would be a nice, long nap."

She delicately helped Tessa lie back and popped a pillow under her head. "That's it. Harley and I will be here to watch over you, while I ask our guests to leave, okay?"

Almost immediately Tessa's eyes began to flutter shut from nervous exhaustion. Frank, Joe, and Callie tiptoed out the office door, waving goodbye to Dr. Lansdale and Harley.

"I'm sorry, I just don't trust her," Callie said as they walked out of the clubhouse. "The old-lady routine is too convenient. After all, she's a professional — a doctor would never do anything like that!"

"I don't know, Callie," Joe said. "She seemed so upset. Besides, she must be pushing seventy or seventy-five. I really think she's a little forgetful and careless."

"Besides," Frank added, "if she were really after Tessa, wouldn't it be a little obvious to knock her off in front of four witnesses?"

"I guess you're right," Callie said with a pout. "After all, you're the detectives. Well, now I've got to go rescue my car from its hiding place. I didn't have the skill to just drive right up as you did."

As she turned away, Frank could tell that she was only half joking. It seemed to him that Callie was not only jealous, but determined to crack this case herself. Joe and he could certainly use her on the case.

"Listen," said Joe, interrupting his brother's thoughts. "What do you think of this bodyguard idea? It seems perfect to me."

Frank nodded. "I'm afraid I agree with you this time, Joe. We're going to need a lot of close contact — "

"I heard that!" came a voice from around a corner of the clubhouse. Callie came storming back toward them. "Close contact? I know what kind of close contact you want! I can't believe you're actually falling for her offer!" Frank exhaled with frustration. "And I can't believe you were actually eavesdropping. BeSides, you yourself said it was a fascinating case!"

"It's the victim who's fascinating to you, Frank — the poor little glamorous redhead! You're going to become her slaves, just like Squinder! And, by the way," Callie added, her eyes blazing, "I wasn't eavesdropping, I came back to see what time we were going to the movies tonight. But you can forget that now!" With that, she stalked away.

"Do I detect a note of anger?" Joe said with a wry grin. "Maybe you should drop the case. Then Callie will go to the movies with you tonight, and I'll be Tessa's bodyguard."

Frank raised an eyebrow at his brother. "All I can say is, if I manage to crack this case and keep my instincts. If only they could all work - "

Frank and Joe lurched to the left as the van took a sharp curve at forty miles an hour.

"Hasn't she learned her lesson yet?" said Frank. "She's going to ruin that car too!" Joe kept the little blue convertible within his sight as it raced along Cliffside Road. A lo mane of scarlet hair billowed back from the driver's seat.

"Can you believe that incredible machine is her second car, Frank?"

"Well, I hope her third is a Model T. They only go twenty miles an hour." Frank reached out to steady himself as the van sped over a bump in the road. "We could have offered to drive her home from the club."

"I know, but when I called her from our house she insisted she was well enough to drive!"

The setting sun washed the woods in an orange glow as the two vehicles approached the Carpenter mansion. In a cloud of dust, the convertible stormed up the winding dirt driveway and skidded to a stop in front of the four-car garage.

Covered with a thin film of dirt, the Hardy van followed slowly behind, its windshield washed squirting away. , "Mom and Dad have Tessas phone number — right, Joe?"

"Yeah," Joe replied. "And if they need to find us, it shouldn't be hard. Tessa's mansion has been mentioned in all the newspapers this week.' "How did I ever let you sucker me into this bodyguard idea, anyway?" Frank asked as they pulled up behind Tessa's car. !

"Me? Wait a minute—" "Welcome home!" Tessa chirped, standing beside her car.

"Uh, Tessa — " Frank began. "I can't believe how much better I feel after that nice, long nap!" Tessa went on. "Now, do you need help getting settled in the cottage?" §They shook their heads.

She pulled open the van door and skipped away toward the house.

"Amazing how fast she bounces back," Frank said as he and Joe stepped out of the van. They wandered through the mansion, until they found Tessa rewinding a cassette in a telephone answering machine in the sitting room.

"I love these things," she said. "So much better than secretaries. They don't make mistakes or take lunch breaks—and they're much cheaper."

Beep. There was only one message "Hello, Miss Carpenter. Albert Ruppenthal here. Just wanted to let you know, the staff in our upstate warehouse has located your grandfather's agreement. It was buried in some files that had been transferred there after the museum fire. I'm expecting it to be brought here late tomorrow, and expect you to be home The day when we pick up the collection. You will, of course, be responsible for the cost of the Greek statue. Have a pleasant day."

Tessa sank into a leather armchair. Her rosy complexion had quickly become chalky white. "This was bound to happen," Joe said gently..

He felt sorry for her. She looked more upset than he had expected.

"Bound to happen! That's easy for you to say!" Tessa snapped.

"Sorry, Tessa," Joe answered. "I didn't mean it to sound — " "I know, I know," Tessa said with a sigh. "Maybe it's just as well anyway. This stupid art collection has caused me nothing but trouble." She looked around at the paintings on the sitting-room wall. "Besides, most of the paintings don't even go with the wallpaper."

"Even when you return the collection, there's still the small matter of our investigation," Frank said.

Tessa snapped out of her gloom. "Right!" she said, looking at Frank with adoring eyes. "What comes next?" '

"Well, I will have to check out the parlor, and Joe — "

" No!" Tessa interrupted.

"What's the matter?" Frank said.

Tessa's bottom lip jutted out in a pout. She gave Frank a hurt look and said, "You're not going to leave me alone, Frank? I thought you were my bodyguard."

"Uh — yeah, Tessa. That's right." He looked at Joe and shrugged. "I guess that leaves you to search the house for clues." "I guess so," Joe said listlessly. He nodded slowly, walking out the door. "Only who's going to guard you from her?" he muttered.

"What?" Frank called out.

"Never mind," Joe answered as he went - through the door.

The Borgia dagger was in its glass case on top of the broken sideboard still. Joe lifted the glass case carefully and saw the carved-oak wall through the case. Was there anything unusual? he wondered — any electrical switches, bugging devices? ...

He opened the case, lifted the dagger, and peeked under the satin cushion. Nothing. He put it down and then looked in the corner where the statue had been. No mechanical tripping devices.

Maybe there was something in the room he wasn't seeing — a box of circuit breakers, a hidden TV camera.

He stood in the corner and leaned back against the oak wall, surveying the room. His elbow bumped against one of the intricate carvings — and it moved!

He sprang forward. The carving popped back to its original position.

Creeeak! A sudden vibration at his side caught Joe's attention. As he watched in surprise, one entire section of the bookcase swung slowly out of the wall, sending several books toppling onto the floor.

He grabbed the bookcase and pulled it out farther into the room. Behind it was nothing but pitch-darkness.

A secret room, Joe thought. Just like the old movies. Now we're getting someplace.

With great caution, he took one step into the unknown—and fell straight down through broken cobwebs into a black abyss.

He hit the cement floor hard. For a moment he lay there, the wind knocked out of him. He flexed his arms and legs. Nothing broken.

Gradually his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He looked around him. A weak shaft of light spilled in from the opening he'd just fallen through. All it enabled him to see was the large, empty room he was in. On the far wall there was a low, open doorway.

He picked himself up and cautiously walked to this other doorway. To enter it, he had to stoop. Stepping carefully, he passed through. He reached out with both hands and felt rough plaster walls on either side of him. The ceiling scraped against his head. The absolute blackness in the tunnel gave him no clue as to his destination — except that he was moving on a sharp downward slope. Guiding himself with his hands, he groped along, slowly at first and then picked up speed. This has to lead to something, he thought. A storage room, a boiler room .. .

Thunk. Before he could finish his thought, Joe had crashed into something. He rubbed his forehead where it had made contact with the object. With his other hand, he reached out and felt a wooden door that had blocked his path. He found the doorknob and pushed the door open.

Another dark room. Joe stepped inside—onto a small object that rolled out from beneath him.

"Who - o - oa!" he called out, clutching at the doorjamb, next to which he felt the cool metal plate of a light switch.

He flicked on the switch. The room was flooded with fluorescent light. As Joe's eyes adjusted, he saw trunks, boxes, garden equipment, and a floor cluttered with small objects, including the metal roller skate that he had just tripped over.

On the near wall was something he had hoped to find — a metal panel of circuit breakers. He opened the front of the metal box, and saw about twenty switches. He read the labels beneath each one: Kitchen, Sitting Room, Parlor . . . Below them all was a large, main switch. "Now we're cooking," he said to himself. This was the place where all the lights in the mansion could have been blacked out.

On the far wall were a few rickety wooden stairs that led up to two overhead cellar doors. Now Joe knew where he was. The tunnel had gradually led him down to the basement. He turned back and closed the circuit breaker box, climbed two of the four stairs, and pushed up to open one of the bulkhead doors.

The smell of fresh flowers wafted down to him. Joe stuck his head out into the sunlight. He looked up and behind him to see the side of the Carpenter mansion. A flower garden stretched to the ends of the house on either side of him, and directly in front of him was a well-worn dirt path.

A dirt path that led directly to the servants' cottage.

A smile flickered across Joe's face. He jumped outside and ran around to the front of the mansion.

As he passed under the window of the sitting room, he heard Tessa's voice: "Why don't you let me give you a massage, Frank. It will loosen you up. Being my bodyguard hasn't exactly been relaxing so far."

Joe looked through the window to see Frank sitting nervously on the edge of the couch. Tessa was standing behind him and reaching for his neck.

Frank shot up off the couch as Tessa's fingers made contact. "Uh, how about a walk in the — Joe!" he cried,- spotting his brother outside. "What are you doing out there?"

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Joe replied.

"No, no, come on in!"

Joe trotted around to the front door and then into the sitting room.

"Where have you been?" Frank asked. "We missed you!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Joe caught a glimpse of Tessa, slumped in an armchair, pouting. '

"Well, at least one of you did," Joe said under his breath. "But never mind. I think we may have a breakthrough in the case. Tessa, do you have a flashlight?"

"Sure. Do you want me to get it for you?" Joe nodded. Barely hiding her annoyed look, she left the room and quickly returned with a large greeny flashlight.

"Okay, follow me!" Joe said. He led Frank and Tessa into the parlor. Tessa's jaw dropped as Joe walked over to the section of the bookcase that was swung away from the wall.

"There's a room down here," Joe explained. He pointed the flashlight into the void. "But you have to jump a couple of steps to get to it."

He circled the flashlight around, examining the dark room. Off to the side of the opening, a short metal ladder was leaning against the wall.

"It all makes sense now," Joe said. "There's a tunnel that leads down from this room into a storage area that houses the circuit breakers. Whoever tried to kill Tessa could have used that route to come up here," — he turned toward the corner of the parlor at their immediate right— "and then walked two steps into that corner to shove the statue over."

"Amazing," Tessa said.