The Whispering Statue (13 page)
Read The Whispering Statue Online
Authors: Carolyn Keene
Tags: #Art Thieves, #Yacht Clubs, #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Adventures and Adventures, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Juvenile Fiction, #Mothers and Sons, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Art Objects - Reproduction, #Fraud, #Mystery Fiction, #Adventure Stories, #Art Objects, #Swindlers and Swindling, #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Statues, #Mystery and Detective Stories
The next moment Nancy gasped. “There’s nothing here!”
“You mean Mr. Basswood moved everything out?”
Nancy said she was sure no one else had. “I wonder why he did that. Ned, let’s search the room upstairs where the picture frames are.”
The highboy in the rear room had been pushed back into place but Ned moved it aside. Nancy opened the door and the couple gazed inside.
“Everything is gone from here too!” Ned exclaimed.
Nancy did not comment for several seconds, then she said, “Ned, this looks very suspicious. I think Mr. Basswood is probably planning to disappear.” She glanced at her watch. It was nearly two o’clock. “I must open the shop soon,” she told him. “How about your doing some more investigating in here and see if you can pick up a clue?”
“Okay.”
Nancy went through the rear room toward the hall. When she reached it she stood still and stared. In the big room a burly man was scooping up objects as fast as he could and putting them into a lined, compartmented carton. Apparently he had let himself in with a key.
The man turned and she got a good look at his face. He was the one who had entered the front door of the Drew home and escaped from the art shop yesterday!
“Stop that!” Nancy yelled at him.
The intruder sprang toward her. Nancy started to run to the rear room, crying out, “Help! Ned! Help!”
The burly man grabbed hold of Nancy, pinned the girl’s arms back, and began to stuff the gag into her mouth. At that instant Ned raced into the hall.
The intruder saw him and let go of Nancy. He made a dash for the front door, but Ned leaped for the man’s legs and brought him down in a smashing tackle.
As he slowly rose to his feet, he said, “I got a right to be here! I was sent to take away this stuff! Let go of me!”
“Who told you to take it?” Ned demanded.
“None of your business.”
Once more the intruder made a beeline for the front door, but again Ned was too quick for him. He threw the man to the floor, knocking the wind out of him. Nancy told Ned about the previous intrusion.
As he lay on the floor, Ned remarked, “You got away before, but you won’t again! This time we’re turning you over to the police!”
The man panicked. “No! No! Don’t do that! I’ll talk!”
Nancy and Ned looked at each other and waited for their prisoner to say something. He got to his knees, then stood up without a word.
“Help! Ned! Help!” Nancy cried
Suddenly there was loud knocking on the door. Could the caller be an accomplice? Ned held onto his captive while Nancy cautiously opened the door a crack.
CHAPTER XVIII
Important Lead
To Nancy’s relief she recognized the newcomer as a guest at the yacht club. Quickly she said to him, “Please get the police! We’re holding a thief here!”
Terror came into the eyes of Ned’s prisoner. He tried once more to get away, but Ned held him in a tight grip.
Nancy asked him, “Who gave you the key to this place?”
“Mr. Basswood. I do trucking for him.” Quickly Nancy shot another question at the man. “And for Marco De Keer too?”
The prisoner stared at Nancy in disbelief. Then he said, “Sure.” As if suddenly proud of his identity, the man puffed out his chest. “Trunk Rasson is strong. I can lift anything.”
The young detective wanted to quiz the prisoner about having forced his way into the Drew home. But he evidently had no idea who she was and Nancy decided it would be better if he did not know. She would leave the assault charge against him to her father.
“I’m still Debbie Lynbrook,” she thought, and went on with her questioning. “You say you can lift anything? Even a very heavy statue?”
“Sure. Why not?”
Nancy pursued a hunch she had. “Did you deliver a life-size marble to someone in Pitman or Pittville?”
“I sure did. And she was a beauty, too.”
The man’s bragging came to a sudden end. A look of fright came over his face. Apparently he realized he had talked too much. He merely shook his head when more questions were put to him.
In a few minutes the customer returned with two police officers. Trunk Rasson was taken into custody. His bravado gone, the prisoner did not attempt to escape and would say nothing.
Nancy took one of the officers aside and whispered to him, “The River Heights police are looking for this man. I suggest that you contact Chief McGinnis there.”
“We’ll do that,” the officer replied.
Nancy went on, “Mrs. Horace Merriam in Waterford will be able to identify him.”
After Rasson and his truck were taken away, Nancy and Ned discussed this latest happening. She remarked, “I believe Rasson was supposed to remove all the worthwhile merchandise.”
Ned frowned. “Nancy, I don’t like the looks of this whole thing. Boy, am I glad I came when I did! When I think that you might have been a prisoner of that—”
Nancy patted her friend’s arm. “You may even have saved my life!” She looked at him gratefully.
There was no chance for further conversation because customers began to arrive. Many did not intend to purchase anything—they were merely curious as to why the police had been there.
To each question Nancy would reply with a smile, “We caught a thief!”
The reactions were varied. Most of the women said, “Weren’t you terrified?” The men would become angry and wish they had had a chance to overpower the burglar.
There were so many people in the shop that Ned was forced to act as salesman. He told Nancy he was enjoying himself immensely.
Shortly before closing time, a man who had purchased a rather large painting handed Nancy a hundred-dollar bill. Mr. Basswood had left a small amount of change in a drawer in the rear room. In order to save time going back and forth, Ned had been putting the cash in one of his own pockets.
He was busy at the moment so Nancy started for the highboy to see if there was enough change in the cashbox. But force of habit led her unthinkingly to Mr. Basswood’s office. Then, realizing he was not there, she started away.
“Maybe the door’s unlocked,” she thought, “and I can find change inside.”
The knob turned and the door swung inward To her astonishment the drawers in the desk and file cabinet stood open. All were empty!
“Basswood has skipped out!” she said to herself and hurried to find Ned. She whispered her suspicions to him, then said, “Here’s a hundred-dollar bill. The painting is seventy-five dollars.”
Ned pulled a wad of bills from his pocket and counted out twenty-five dollars in change to the customer, then said he would wrap the painting.
“That won’t be necessary,” the man said. “I have a blanket in the car I can put over it.” He went off.
There was no chance for Nancy to discuss with Ned what she had discovered in Mr. Basswood’s office. At four o’clock all the customers left. Nancy locked the front door and the couple rushed to the office.
“You’re probably right that Basswood has skipped,” Ned remarked. “And I guess he really did send Rasson here to pick up the stuff. You sure fouled that little scheme of theirs!”
Nancy smiled. “What an afternoon. We have captured a suspect and taken in several hundred dollars from sales!”
“We’d better not leave this money here,” said Ned. “And I don’t want to be responsible for it.”
Nancy suggested that they take it to police headquarters. “And I think I’ll leave the key to the shop too.”
“Good idea,” Ned agreed. “Furthermore, I don’t think you should come back here again without police protection.”
The young sleuth nodded. She locked the door and the couple set off for police headquarters. Captain Turner was there. He took them into his private office and asked for the full story about Trunk Rasson.
After hearing it, he asked Nancy to make a formal complaint against the man so they could hold him. If it was true that Mr. Basswood had sent him to pick up certain objects, he had a legal right to do so.
“I’ll confine my complaint to having been attacked,” Nancy said.
When the formalities were over, she and Ned drove to the yacht club. The desk clerk said Mr. Ayer wanted to see Miss Lynbrook the minute she came in. Ned waited in the lobby while Nancy went to the manager’s office.
“Hello,” he said. “I have a message for you from George and it sounds important.” His eyes twinkled.
“Don’t keep me in suspense,” Nancy said, smiling.
“The message was ‘We trailed Basswood to the Maple Motel in Pittville. He is registered there with Marco De Keer. Bess and Dick and I will wait for Nancy in the Robin Roost Restaurant until nine o’clock. It’s located across the street.’ ”
“That really is news,” Nancy told the manager. “Ned and I will go there at once. He showed up unexpectedly at the art shop and stayed to help me. By the way, we caught one of the men involved in the mystery.”
“You did!” Mr. Ayer exclaimed. “Who is he?”
Nancy told him and asked if Mr. Ayer had ever heard of the trucker.
“No,” he replied. “I guess his place of business isn’t in Waterford.”
Nancy said, “You’re probably right, and added, ”If George calls again, please tell her we’re on our way.” She and Ned set off at once.
It was an hour’s drive to Pittville. They found the restaurant easily. Bess, George, and Dick had had an early dinner and they talked while Ned and Nancy ate.
“Mr. Basswood did not seem to suspect that he was being followed,” Bess reported. “He went directly to Marco’s barn and picked him up. Then they came here and are still in the motel.”
Ned asked Dick how he liked being a detective.
“It’s great,” he replied. With a grin he added, “The first thing I found out was that Debbie Lynbrook is really Nancy Drew.”
Bess blushed. “I’m sorry, Nancy, but I gave your secret away.”
Nancy laughed. “The whole story may come out sooner than we thought.” She and Ned briefed the others on their encounter with Trunk Rasson and what they had learned from him.
“You actually caught the intruder at the art shop?” Bess asked unbelievingly.
“We sure did,” Ned told her. “I hope those iron muscles of his won’t be able to break the bars of his jail cell!”
Nancy and Ned ate leisurely. Basswood and Marco De Keer did not appear.
On a hunch Nancy left the others to talk to the restaurant owner, Gus Becker. She asked him if he knew of anyone in town who might own a life-size marble statue of a woman.
“Yes, I do,” he replied. “Mrs. Jonathan King. She has an estate on Tulip Road.”
Nancy was thrilled by this bit of information and also at what followed. “Mrs. King is loaded with money,” Gus went on. “She has a house full of paintings and statues, most of them from Italy.”
“I believe I’ll call on her,” Nancy said. “Thank you very much.”
When she returned to the table her friends could see excitement in her eyes. Ned asked, “You’ve picked up another clue?”
“A terrific one,” Nancy replied, and told them what Gus Becker had said. “It’s only eight o’clock. Maybe we can see Mrs. King tonight. How about you going with me, Ned, while the rest of you watch for Mr. Basswood?”
They all agreed to the plan and Nancy went off to telephone Mrs. King.
CHAPTER XIX
Nancy in Marble
A MAN answered the telephone when Nancy dialed Mrs. King’s home. After she had identified herself as Nancy Drew from River Heights, he said he would get Mrs. King.
“Hello,” said a pleasant feminine voice. “This is Mrs. King. You are Miss Nancy Drew?”
“Yes, Mrs. King. Would it be possible for me and my friend Ned Nickerson to come and call on you? I understand you have a life-size marble statue of a young woman.”
Nancy chuckled. “I’m trying to find one which I’m told looks like me. It’s just possible yours is the right one.”
Mrs. King laughed. “Yes, indeed, you may come. This is the most unusual reason anybody has ever given to see my statuary. Now I can’t wait to meet you.”
“We’ll drive over right away.”
Nancy returned to her friends and reported the phone conversation. “Come on, Ned. Let’s go!”
She said they would return to the restaurant after their call on Mrs. King. “If you three trail Mr. Basswood, leave a note for us.”
During the drive Nancy removed her wig and Ned heaved a sigh. “Now you look like your old self, and more my style.”
Fifteen minutes later he was ringing the bell of the King mansion. It was a huge house at the end of a long uphill driveway.
A houseman opened the door. “Miss Drew and Mr. Nickerson?” he asked.
Ned said, “Yes.”
“Please step in,” the man requested. “I shall summon Mrs. King.”
The house was exquisitely furnished with beautiful tapestry drapes, Oriental rugs, and fine furniture. On the walls of the rooms off the center hall were many valuable paintings. Graceful pieces of statuary on pedestals added to the artistic decor.
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